Gam Zeh Yaavor- This too shall pass

Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems

"You must be able to bear your sorrows; even if it seems to crush you, you will be able to stand up again, for human beings are so strong, and your sorrow must become an integral part of yourself...you mustn't run away from it, but bear it like an adult..." Etty Hillesum

Yesterday, I had one of those days, when you reach a point and all you want to do is lay down somewhere and not stand up again for a very long time...Then I got home and I saw a message from Bat Melech: "Gam Zeh Yavoor, Bat Tzion" (This too shall pass, daughter of Zion) and I remembered. Bat Melech, has this gift of expanding the picture back to its real size, at least in my life (todah, Bat Malech).
A couple of years ago, I heard a sermon of Richard Wurmbrand, and he was telling this story:

One day, prince Solomon was taking a walk through the palace garden. At some point he meets the King's jeweller, who seemed very upset. Prince Solomon asks him: "What has happened to you? Why are you so sad?"
"How could I not be sad, Your Highness", said the jeweller, "when His Majesty, just gave me an impossible task."
"What task?", prince Solomon asked.
"He asked me to make him a ring that will make smile when he is sad and cry when he is happy. How could I complete such a task? It's impossible!", said the desperate jeweller.
"Don't worry," replied prince Solomon "make him a simple gold ring and engrave on it "gam zeh yavoor", that way when he is sad he will remember that his sadness is only temporary and smile, and when he is happy he will remember that he is only temporary and cry."

Every time one of us is sad, Bat Melech and I remind each other "gam zeh yavoor, gam zeh yavoor". Because that is the real size of the picture, not what is going on around us. I said this before, time's only function is to pass and to take all of us with it with all its good and bad. Except God, everything else is "shadows and dust". Humans are but shadows, here today and gone tomorrow and at some point everything else that is created will turn to dust. So, no matter how bad things turn out, it is only temporary. Sometimes pain just lands in your life and knocks the breath out of you, but even that is temporary because within 60 seconds at most, you start breathing again. It's never as bad as it seems at that moment. Bat Melech has this saying: "He will not allow in my life more than I can bear, so if I am still here it means I can endure more."

Have you noticed how you can now go through things that use to make you say "I can't anymore. I simply cannot bear anymore"? You know what I think? You can bear it now, because you allowed pain to take it's place in you when it came along. You did not fight it like a child having a tantrum, you just accepted it in it's real size. And because of that you can now put up with it.
I have another sister. Bat Melech and I call her our adoptive sister:-) Her name is Ioana, and she's seen a lot... Ioana told me once, that pain is the main creative force in our life. Our mothers bring life in this world in pain, a caterpillar goes through pain until it become a butterfly. Everything that's beautiful and eternal is birthed through pain. That's what Yeshua taught us, when He came and paid the price.

Pain can be an enemy or a friend, but whatever it is to you, it won't spare you so you might as well accept is. I hated pain all my life. I would do anything not to go through it, numb it with anything, take my refuge in anything, only to avoid it. Then I read Etty Hillesum's notebooks, and my eyes opened: if I accept it, it will hit me in its real size every time, it will not be a tragedy each time it comes along, it will be just another feeling that I can go through the same way I go through joy. Pain is not this big giant that I need to run from as if hell would chase me. It is just another feeling like happiness, sadness, joy, gratitude. I don't run from joy, I carry it inside and experience it until it goes away. It's the same with pain. I might not enjoy it, but I can learn from it because pain is a good teacher when it comes to ones self. It shows us stripped of everything else. But you know what? Pain also passes and is replaced with something else. It's all part of this journey. So next time it comes along you tell yourself what Bat Melech tells me:

"Gam Zeh Yavoor- This too shall pass."

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." (Lamentations 3:21-26)

May you stay strong whatever comes along.

Emanuela