Hi, my name is Mary Lynn. I'm a wife, mother and grandmother, and women's

ministry's coordinator in Seattle, Washington. I've been a ministry partner with

Desiring God for 14 years. You are listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with

John Piper.

Thank you, Mary Lynn. For that, we're going to chat with her in just a moment. But

first, today's question comes to us from a listener named Matt who emailed us

this. Hello, Pastor John. Thank you for taking my question. I know you often talk

about joy inside of suffering, like Paul did. And that leads me to my question in

Psalm 30 verse five. The Psalmist says joy is found on the other side of

suffering, weeping last the night, but joy comes with the morning. But Paul's

testimony in the New Testament claims that he found joy together with his

suffering. He said this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 10, talking about

being sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. So does joy follow suffering? Or is

there joy inside suffering? And did something change in the New

covenant? My mother was killed in a bus accident in Israel in 1974. I was 28

years old. My brother-in-law called me and told me that my mother was dead and

my father was seriously injured and might not make it. That's all he knew. He

would keep me posted. I hung up the phone. I told Noel what he told me. I went to

the bedroom, knelt down by the bed and wept for a long time. And in my weeping,

in my weeping, simultaneous, not sequential, I was rejoicing. The weeping was

owing to, of course, the overwhelming pain of sorrow and loss, massive loss

of one whom I so, so cherished. The joy was thank you that I had such an

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