Sorrow is better than fear

He couldn’t believe what’d happened to him. He always sat there, thinking, contemplating, asking himself why of all the people in this world, of all the things in there is, this would choose to happen to him. See, Eric had not really had the best of lives ever since his childhood. But he’d always worked hard to better his life but surely, he hadn’t seen much change. He’d almost come to terms with the fact that his life will not really get much better than this but also, would regularly smile to the fact that it could always be much worse, but it luckily wasn’t.

For a moment or two, he’d tried to make himself believe that it’d not happened, he thought that one day he’d wake up and found that it’d not happened. But it was just a moment or two. He would finally come to terms that it happened. All he wished was at least someone would have told him that it was coming. Maybe a sign of sorts. But he wasn’t told, and never got a sign. Sadly though, others could see it. They could see the steps taken and could know the next step that was going to be taken. It was revealed to others, to whom it really didn’t matter, but to him, for whom it was a matter of life and death, it was not revealed.

Eric was like a man sleeping in grass and over him, the greatest storm of all his life is gathering. Lightning and thunder is coming, bigger and louder than he’s ever seen in his lifetime, bringing along suffering, and torment, and destruction, and indeed, death. Everybody is hurrying home past him, to places safe from danger. Whether they do not see him there in the grass, or whether they fear to disturb him, or they just don’t want to tell him, only God knows but, they don’t wake him, they let him be. It’s really a cold world out there. Everyone for themselves, God for us all is what they always say. But what would you lose if you did something for someone else just for once? I mean we all know a candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle.

So after too much thinking, and worrying about the uncertainty of his future, he was silent for a really long time. I was watching him for a long time, and all I saw was suffering in his face, and anger, and sorrow, and anxiety. I tried a dozen sentences but none seemed fitting. I hope he would take it as a signal that other words would follow. Maybe not now, maybe they just couldn’t come out quite right at the moment.

All I know is at that moment, his anger had turned into fear, and his fear into sorrow. But we all know sorrow is better than fear (or if you didn’t know, now you know). Because fear impoverishes always, while sorrow may enrich. He looked at me with an intensified gaze and said – Norman, I don’t know that I am enriched. But before he added way too many other sad words, I told him that fear is a terrible journey, but sorrow is at least an arriving. And he went on to ask, - Where have I arrived man?

You see, when the storm threatens, a man is afraid for his house. He is in fear that it may crumble down. But he can’t do anything about the storm. When the house is broken, that fear transforms into sorrow, the sorrow of losing a house but, there’s something to do, he can rebuild that house. We always fear the things that may happen to us, most of which are we completely have no control over, and after they’ve come to pass, we should allow ourselves to let the sorrow sink in, for when it does, we overcome fear and will definitely stand again. We built the house when we were still young and energetic, but the storm brought it down when we are old and tired, but we are going to build it again. How and when, we might not be sure because we can never comprehend the ways of God. 

Sometimes it seems like God has turned away from us, but that never happens. Never, ever happens.

So we talked about amending Eric’s life, and because he’s a believer in God, this would really matter to him. Any man may always repent of his sins, because God loves forgiving. Eric was afraid of repenting. He just couldn’t believe he could be forgiven, or his life to be amended. There was no shame in him, no pity for those he’d hurt, tears came from his eyes but he wept only for himself, not for his wickedness, but for his danger. The fear of what was going to happen to him. He’d lost hope.

In times of adversity, in times of sorrow, we should always pray and have faith in God. Let’s not pray to understand the ways of God, because they are secret. Let’s not pray for ourselves alone, but pray for others as well. Pray for the kids that have no parents and go hungry almost every single day. Pray for that woman in an abusive relationship that she can’t really turn away from, pray for those people who’ve lost hope and faith to recover it, pray for all the injustices in this world, pray for yourself, for strength to rebuild your life after a great storm, and then both your sorrow and fear will seize to exist. 

Sorrow is a fruit; God does not allow it to grow on a branch that is too weak to bear it. - Victor Hugo

Finally, pray for me, to get the wisdom to write more of this. Lol.