Sorrows, Celebrations

Life is full of sorrows.

It is also flowing with celebrations.

Today, I encountered sad situations and those that filled me with joy.

At jail, a 33-year-old man who is caught in the web of crack cocaine addiction, refused to go into rehabilitation for drug recovery.

"You become better at getting drugs when you go int a rehab," he yelled back at my invititation.

He had little to say.

I was sad, to say the least.

"Do you want me to give a message to anyone?" I asked him.

"No!"

Later that day I popped into an office of Ascension Lutheran Church in Clinto Township to meet the pastor.

Joy filled me as we chatted.

He told of plans to break ground for a new building on Card and 22 Mile Road in Macomb County, MI.

Good news, I thought.

People believe.

We talked about fracture in marriage and the violence surrounding us everywhere, it seems.

"You know, the research shows that those who stop devotions and prayers, get caught up in temptation and sin," the pastor shared.

At home, later that night, I saw in the paper that the Wall of Healing is in town in Clinton Township, MI., not far from where I live.

The story of a marine killed in Vietnam locked me into that piece since my own brother, Lucas, was killed the same year there in 1968.

That's an unhealed wound, I thought.

More sadness, sorrow, as I recalled the men and women maimed in our current battled.

I'll be there to find my brother's name on the Wall, nevertheless.

After some prayer, I hit the pillow and rested my head with a deep sigh of relief.

I felt a smile come over my face before I vaulted into deep rest.

Sorrows and celebrations.

The mix of life.

"We mourn over the blossoms of May because they are to wither, but we know withal, that May is one day to have its revenge upon November, by the revolution of the solemn circle which never stops - which teaches us in our height of hope, ever to be sober, and in our depth of desolation never to despair."

John Henry Cardinal Newman's "The Second Spring," came to mind, from July of 1852.

The mix of ups and downs of life.

We take the sad stuff.

We relish the consolations and joys also, thank God!