From Misery to Ministry

I am still chewing on how God comforts us so we can comfort others - and was reminded of this quote:

“I am struck by the number of persons who are led to undertake a most creative work through their experience of their own or the world’s deep misery. They move from the initial experience of misery to some form of soul-searching and through to an experience of mystery, before they are led to the work they feel called to do. In moving from misery to meditation, to mystery, to ministry, these persons are, in fact, moving from compassion to contemplation to communion to creative commitment.
Afterward, they have no trouble telling me how they came to do what they are presently doing; but as they are moving through misery to meditation, however, they usually have no idea of what is happening to them, or of where their life is leading them. They are hurting and scared to death. As the cycle completes itself by moving from mystery to ministry, however, it is as though their pain reveals its purpose. All along it is meant to teach them
• How to be true to themselves,
• How deep their spiritual resources go,
• How to be true to a Power beyond themselves,
• And how to serve others creatively with compassion.
What went down in pain, then, comes up in praise; what went inward in suffering comes outward in service.
(From ‘The Art of Passing-over’ by Frances Dorff)