Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Luke 6:21

Blessed are you who mourn now, for you will be comforted. Matthew 5:4

Laughing and making people laugh have been two of my most cherished experiences in life. It’s oxygen to me. I’ve even tried my hand briefly at being a stand-up comedian. That was a tough gig! How did I do? Well, I can honestly say that I DID stand up while I was doing it (that one night at Acme Comedy Club.)

But I never thought that the way to get people to laugh was to first get them to weep. So let’s look at the Aramaic to see what’s going on here.

Tubwaykhon l’dabekeyn hasha detgehekon. There. That should clear it up. Not yet? 

Aramaic scholar, Dr. Neil Douglas Klotz, offers this translation:

”Tuned to the Source are you who are dissolving in tears, you will be carried with power toward hope itself. Ripe are you who have been wrung dry by life. Blessed are you who are flowing with mourning, you will dance over the waves of superficial appearance. In the right time and place are you who face the grief inside, you will be embraced within the arms of the One. Lucky are you who feel empty with weeping now. In the next circle of life, you will be filled with cosmic laughter.”  From “Blessings Of The Cosmos.”

This path toward laughter and joy makes no sense to the ego. It is the exact opposite of the control the ego so desperately seeks. This path is it’s death and defeat.

We don’t speak or think well of weeping do we? We say “I lost it.” “I just fell apart.” We look upon ourselves as a vehicle that doesn’t work anymore, and say “I broke down.”

But in the spiritual world, living in the depths of being out of control is the absolute best place to be. IF we accept it. Surrender to it.  Look it in the eye and feel it.

In “dissolving into tears” we are letting go of our futile efforts to deny, distract ourselves, or maintain any illusion of being in control.

We are also descending into the great truth of living in a dualistic world. We can only know deep joy if we first know deep sorrow. It’s as if the depths of the sorrow stretch our souls outward, creating room within them to receive a larger joy. A joy it hadn’t had room for.

It’s been my experience that the vast majority of stand-up comedians have lived very painful lives. And the people I have known who have the greatest sense of humor have lived through much pain as well.

It is in our pain that we are “tuned to the Source.” How so? In that energy space we are cracked open to receive the Love that deeply wants to come to us. And that Love will come through the helpers, as Mister Rogers taught us.

Blessed are you who mourn now, for you will be comforted.

In my years as a pastor I was constantly amazed at what people’s pain can cause them to do. When someone experiences a great loss through death, your ego would think that when someone else experiences a similar loss, they would stay away. But the opposite proved itself to be true time and time again. Those who have mourned ran toward someone else’s grief to be of comfort.

Those who experienced a particular pain, often ran toward those knowing a similar pain. Parents who have lost a baby or child. Anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one by suicide. Or anyone who has been the victim of sexual abuse, come to mind first. For many, the depth of that pain leaves going toward that pain in someone else as the only option.  “I know that pain. It’s too great to endure alone.”

That is the Divine within us. We are “tuned to the Source” of the Love that longs to come. And both the one who has suffered through a loss, and the one who receives their compassion, are comforted. And they are never the same.

“In the difficult are the friendly forces. The hands that work on us.” Rainer Maria Rilke

You are this Love. You are “the arms of the One.”

Pastor Tim Tengblad

timtengblad@comcast.net