Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.Romans 12:15 (NIV)

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” — Romans 12:15 (NIV)

The second half gets quoted. The first half is harder.

Sitting with someone in trouble asks for time and nerve, and most people find it when it comes to it. Being properly glad for someone whose life has just gone right — when yours has not — asks for something else. There is a kind of gladness that is really a quiet sum being done underneath: their good news set against your own year.

Paul put that line in the middle of a list of plain instructions for living alongside other people, not in a passage about how to feel. Which suggests it is something done rather than something waited for. You can decide to be glad for someone a good while before you manage to be.

Somebody's good news is probably still sitting there, unanswered.