timhowington.com

Grief comes to all men through the hardships of life. Death of a loved one. Death of a dream. Loss of an opportunity. Grief is defined as keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret. But the grief unique to a laborer has more to do with disappointment. Jesus came to His own but they did not receive Him. We too will experience the rejection of men and will grieve that loss. Most of my most painful experiences as a believer has been at the hands of other believers. And it grieves my heart. And I believe that it also grieves the heart of God who desires for us to live out the one another verses in the Scriptures. But not only will we grieve the painful interaction with others but we will also experience the pain of watching people fall back from the faith. People we love and have invested time and energy discipling will have many setbacks and we will grieve these with them. We seldom talk about how Jesus must of felt when Judas betrayed him. But, I would suspect it pained Him greatly.  Discipling others is not all that different from child-rearing in that we hope great things for our children and experience great concern with their many missteps.