"The difference between shallow happiness and a deep, sustaining joy is sorrow. Happiness lives where sorrow is not. When sorrow arrives, happiness dies. It can't stand pain. Joy, on the other hand, rises from sorrow and therefore can withstand all grief. Joy, by the grace of God, is the transfiguration of suffering into endurance, and of endurance into character, and of character into hope and the hope that has become our joy does not (as happiness must for those who depend upon it) disappoint us." Quote from Walter Wangerin Jr. as used in Daring to Hope by Katie Davis Majors
I think that this quote so touched me because it closely describes my last couple of years. Using the Google dictionary definitions, this is how the last part of the quote might read:
"Joy is the complete changing of my distress, pain or hardship into the power of enduring a difficult time without giving up, and that endurance leads to character and that character gives way to expectation and that expectation is hope!"
I think it is human nature to always hope. Or maybe it is the nature of those who know the One who is Hope. I have hoped beyond hope in many situations, I expect beyond normal expectations because I believe God lives outside of any boundaries or probabilities. God can step into a hopeless situation and change the obvious outcome. He can. But He doesn't always do that. Sometimes He doesn't give me the picture or outcome I have painted in my dreams or envisioned in my heart. I think the hardest thing about the last year was the feeling of the loss of joy. Because even though things appeared one way I had hope they would go another, because God's Word says, "By my stripes you are healed," because His Word says, "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed..." because His words say, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Because He is God, I could hope. There is a 'space,' a 'time,' a 'season,' where I walked between lost hope and joy. A place in between. A place of God wrestling. A place of not understanding and a place of not moving backward and life pushing me forward. A place of searching for joy after losing all hope. A place of calling out to God, "Where are you???" It is in that limbo that my character grows, that my faith is built, that I decide that although my hopes have been shattered, I have no where to turn except to the one I blame, to the one I cannot hear right now, to the one I know is faithful.
And I begin to hope again for new things as I struggle to understand the old. And that hope has brought me back to the one that is Hope. And in that great expectancy, in the process of accepting the answer, I begin to get glimpses of joy. And I sigh and I know He is with me and I know it is okay and I know He has been faithful and I know I will see the joy again and I know that I will never be the same.
I know the pain will always be there mingled with the hope and the joy, and that is okay. I might not have recognized it, but the truth is "Joy can withstand grief." And I know that the "hope that has become our joy, does not disappoint us!!!"
* Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. James 1:2
"Joy is the complete changing of my distress, pain or hardship into the power of enduring a difficult time without giving up, and that endurance leads to character and that character gives way to expectation and that expectation is hope!"
I think it is human nature to always hope. Or maybe it is the nature of those who know the One who is Hope. I have hoped beyond hope in many situations, I expect beyond normal expectations because I believe God lives outside of any boundaries or probabilities. God can step into a hopeless situation and change the obvious outcome. He can. But He doesn't always do that. Sometimes He doesn't give me the picture or outcome I have painted in my dreams or envisioned in my heart. I think the hardest thing about the last year was the feeling of the loss of joy. Because even though things appeared one way I had hope they would go another, because God's Word says, "By my stripes you are healed," because His Word says, "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed..." because His words say, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Because He is God, I could hope. There is a 'space,' a 'time,' a 'season,' where I walked between lost hope and joy. A place in between. A place of God wrestling. A place of not understanding and a place of not moving backward and life pushing me forward. A place of searching for joy after losing all hope. A place of calling out to God, "Where are you???" It is in that limbo that my character grows, that my faith is built, that I decide that although my hopes have been shattered, I have no where to turn except to the one I blame, to the one I cannot hear right now, to the one I know is faithful.
And I begin to hope again for new things as I struggle to understand the old. And that hope has brought me back to the one that is Hope. And in that great expectancy, in the process of accepting the answer, I begin to get glimpses of joy. And I sigh and I know He is with me and I know it is okay and I know He has been faithful and I know I will see the joy again and I know that I will never be the same.
I know the pain will always be there mingled with the hope and the joy, and that is okay. I might not have recognized it, but the truth is "Joy can withstand grief." And I know that the "hope that has become our joy, does not disappoint us!!!"
* Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. James 1:2
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