Holding Sorrows Lightly On the Soul

Holding sorrows lightly upon the soul is resting in the all-sufficient Presence of God’s grace.

But, what does this actually mean in real terms?

It’s about learning, in a way that suits us, how to hold two truths in the mind and heart at the same time—the truth of our sorrow, with the truth of God’s healing grace in our moment.

God’s healing grace really has no other basis for us, in practical terms, than how we experience it in the now.

Up till now we may have considered this sort of thing improbable, or even impossible. We may have tried and tried to do this very thing; to no avail.

Yet, there is a way—a way that works for you—it’s perfect, but only for you. God accommodates us, because he has designed us to be accommodated, uniquely, in his Presence.

Preparing to Change the Way We Think

What we need to be prepared for is that change will occur upon our desire to meet our sorrow differently; not by denying it, but by meeting it with the support of God’s Presence.

Knowing God is there in the pain with us is a great help. It seems like a cliché to say it, but it does work when we actively pray in such ways.

If we know it, God makes his Presence known in the way we feel. We discern he is there, with us, giving us the empathy we need, to the direct design we require; to our exact mood. God is in us, in this struggle, and our Lord suffers just as much with us as we suffer.

These concepts may be strange to us, but practicing the Presence of God is much more intrinsic to our beings than we could have ever thought.

This process of basking in the light of God in the midst of darkness transcends the woes of the helpless existence we have always been used to.

This way of thinking, of acknowledging God there with us, as he has always been, and always will be, is strangely surreal. More and more do we find, with stark dreamlike bliss, that reminders of God are everywhere.

Going to God in the depths is found to be the most natural of all actions we could take, and the natural consequence—a blessing—is we begin to hold our sorrows lighter. They are no less real, and, indeed, we can look at them in their reality without shying away all the more.

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Holding sorrows lightly upon the soul is resting in the all-sufficient Presence of God’s grace.

God is in us, in this struggle, and our Lord suffers just as much with us as we suffer. Just knowing God is there in the pain with us is a great help.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.