Seeds Watered from Tears of Pain

In the summer of 1921, an architect mourning the death of his wife accepted his friend's invitation to spend time at his home in the rural mountains of western New Jersey. There, on daily hikes as he grieved, Benton MacKaye developed the idea of a trail stretching from the Southern Smokey Mountains to the forests of Maine. The tears of his grief watered the seeds we now know as the Appalachian Trail.

These stories of purpose from pain are all around us.

Horatio Spafford wrote the enduring hymn "It Is Well" in the wake of his tragic losses. John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrims Progress while imprisoned for his faith. Bach wrote much of his music in a place of grief, as ten of his 20 children died in childhood.

And as Betsy ten Boom lay dying in a concentration camp, she envisioned with her sister Corrie a restoration home for concentration camp survivors after the war. My father-in-law was saved in that house after the war, became a missionary, and changed the trajectory of our entire family.

God can use the tears of our pain to water seeds of great purpose.

As I’ve walked through the unexpected pain of my husband’s sudden death and becoming a widow and single mom, these stories of purpose from pain encourage me.

Not because the purpose justifies the pain or alleviates it. God never expects us to gloss over deep loss or circumstances that shatter our world. God calls us to lament and grieve, even as we grieve with hope.

So too, as we walk with others in fresh pain, we can allow them space to process without rushing them to look for purpose.

Stories of purpose from pain encourage me because they declare that pain isn’t the end of the story. That God will use our suffering when we trust him to reshape what has shattered.

We see this so clearly in the life of Joseph. Joseph was betrayed by his ten older brothers, taken from his family, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and seemed all but forgotten in prison.

But Joseph’s pain wasn’t wasted. By God’s providence, Joseph became second in command of the Egyptian empire and, years later, when a famine caused his brothers to come to him for wheat, Joseph could see God’s good purpose.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20, NIV)

Jospeh didn’t dismiss his very real pain. “You intended to harm me.” The betrayal and suffering were traumatic and hurtful. But in choosing to trust God, Joseph saw purpose.

God has purpose in our pain as well.

God uses suffering to draw us to himself, make us like Christ, and give us an eternal perspective. God may also use our pain to place us on paths we would have never seen otherwise.

I wonder, what seeds might your tears be watering today?