A Time for Weeping and Laughter

By Anna Lee

On a Friday night, I sat on my bathroom floor, tears running down my face. I had just opened my phone to see my friend group hanging out and posting about it on social media. And for the third time in recent weeks, I hadn’t been invited. I tore myself apart trying to figure out what I had done wrong, yet I had no explanation as to why my friends stopped talking to me and inviting me to things. I was left feeling less than enough.

Fast-forward to a few years later: I have a community of friends that I couldn’t have dreamed up if I tried. Though I was hurt so badly years before, my community now tastes so much sweeter.

God promised us that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Following this verse in Scripture is a list of different seasons, including: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. God makes it pretty obvious that there will be different seasons we walk through in our lives. With the scattering of friends comes the gathering of friends. With a time to refrain from embracing friends comes a time for embracing them. With a time of weeping over friendship losses comes a time of laughter over friendship delights.

I was also reminded of Paul’s stirring reminder: “. . . to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

So, to you who’s just moved to a new city, to you who’s suddenly been ghosted from your friend group, to you who started a new job with no one familiar, and to you who just graduated from college: with times of weeping and loneliness, there comes times of laughter and joy. God will do abundantly more than you could ever dream.

Pray

God, You promise to do exceedingly more than I could ask, think, or imagine. Please reveal that to me, and in the waiting, hold me fast. Thank You for each season I walk through, including the hard ones that make the next season sweeter. Amen.