The Grief that Leads to Glory

When I was in middle school or early high school, I remember that, for a time, my two closest friends and I would greet each other by punching each other in the arm really hard. Then we would laugh hard. Why did we do that? I don’t know. Why do boys that age do the things they do? I’m sure it was painful and we probably left some bruises a time or two.

Just like combining laughter and pain doesn’t make sense to me, so Matthew 5:4 can sound absurd. It says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It doesn’t seem right to put the words “blessed” and “mourn” together. I never...