“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.” - Habakkuk 3:17-19

Both and. Not, either or.

This is life. This is faith.

That we can be forsaken by our own father and mother,

but never left or forsaken by God.

That weeping may last for the evening but joy comes in the morning.

Joy and sorrow can inhabit the same space.

That we can become people who count all things as loss for the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ.

What does sorrow reveal?

How might you glimpse the deeper, truer reality of the surpassing worth of Christ even in the midst of sorrow?