The Beauty of Pain - Samuel Godfrey George

My final reaction to pain and disappointment:

If you want to scream out in pain, you should seriously consider laughing at your own discomfort. If a disappointment is hard to take, it is because you do not see the beauty of it. Pain and disappointment are human reactions to truth. You want to embrace the beautiful lie, as the ugly truth is too dreadful to take. Yet the ugly truth is what will secure your happiness some day, if you are willing to wait for it. Joy lies in understanding and accepting the pain of growth, the growth from ignorance to knowledge.

You want what is not possible. You believe in what is not true. You see nothing wrong in seeking what is good for yourself, but cannot accept those who want to do the same. You love so that you may be loved in return. So you are destroyed when someone fails to return your love. You give so that you may feel good about yourself. You give so that others may show you gratitude. So you are horrified when you meet thankless people. You believe in a higher power, because you have little faith in your own power. You believe in God because you want to be safe. So you are immobilised when your faith leads you to the brink of disaster.

Realise this. Pain is the road to joy. The love that endures is willing to accept rejection. Giving is most blessed when it is unacknowledged. To have faith is to hope when it is hopeless, and to believe when there is no reason to believe.

Today you smile without joy, and weep without reason. Tomorrow you will rejoice without a smile, and weep with reason.