sharing sorrow

While it may be true that misery loves company, I’ve recently been brought to understand a better truth: there is comfort from sharing sadness. The old adage that misery loves company is, in my opinion, sick and twisted. A person that would take delight or be placated by knowing that other people are miserable is not showing love. We should never wish misery upon another and certainly not for the sake of making ourselves feel better.

However, we can find comfort from sharing in other people’s sadness. When someone is hurting, others come alongside of them and try to encourage them. When my wife and I recently shared what we were going through with the loss of our unborn baby, we received many statements of encouragement and assurances of prayer. Some of the most comforting and encouraging notes were from people who had also gone through such a loss or something similar. They shared how they had felt and how the Lord brought them through it.

On the surface, these two things seem to be the same. But the difference is that the first desires to see other people hurting while the second rejoices to see that God has been faithful to other people even though they hurt like you do.