The Good TImes and Bad.

Romans 12:15
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

If you go to a birthday party or even a Christmas party you know it's going to be fun. Often times, we get to see people who we haven't seen in a very long time. It's a time for "catch up" to figure out what's happened in each other's lives since your last meeting with them.

Meanwhile, there's always going to be the sad and gloomy times. A hospital visit or a nursing home visit can be extremely sad. These situations can be complex and overwhelming. Don't we usually try and keep ourselves occupied just so that we don't focus on anything sad? We'd rather everything was hunky dory, but that's not the case.

A true Christian friend is with you in the good times and bad. I've talked about the "shoulder to try on" before...that would be appropriate here. Even just being a good listener would be helpful to the one who is sad. Someone to talk to makes things much better. Isn't that the case for you?

This healing is because of God. He uses people to heal and help others. I believe everyone would agree that being joyous and celebratory is better than being discouraged. However, God's love is truly present in the difficult times too. It's when someone steps up and cares for us when we realize that God is good.

"Hard To Believe" by VOTA



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.