Rediscovering JoySample

In his book If God Is Good, Randy Alcorn offers these words about suffering: “The problem of evil and suffering moves from the philosophical to the personal in a moment in time. . . Pain is always local. It has a face and a name.” Perhaps that is your face and name today. Or maybe it is your friend’s face and name, or your mom’s. None of us gets through this life without suffering at some point. 

And suffering, on any gradient scale, is still suffering. Sometimes it’s emotional; sometimes it’s physical; sometimes it's both. The point is not whether your suffering is on the scale of a fatal health crisis or a temporary but life-altering emotional state; the point is that when suffering comes, you can wrap your pain with the gift of joy. 

The prophet Habbakuk was an example of this: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (Hab. 3:17-19).

When suffering befalls us, what is our response? Take a moment to consider your response in the past. Has it been to lean into Jesus, and into joy? Psalm 94:14 says, “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” God’s consolation. Joy comes only when we sit with Jesus and allow Him to change our anxiety, fear, and sorrow. 

In their book Reconciling All Things, Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice share an example from the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” which depicted the horrors of the 1994 genocide that left over 800,000 people dead in just 100 days. Paul, a hotel manager who had been providing refuge for those being targeted by militia, had run out of water and food and believed the end was drawing near. 

In the midst of that great suffering, Paul took one moment to just be with his wife. He lit a candle, opened a bottle of wine, and simply enjoyed being with her. The authors wrote of this moment: “We submit that sabbath in a broken world is something like this—knowing in the midst of action when it is time to be still on a rooftop, even as the whole world is falling apart, spending time with the God we love. When the One we love whispers to us, ‘All will be well,’ it is more than wishful thinking. It is the fundamental truth of the universe.” 

Do you believe all will be well when you are in the midst of suffering? Do you take the gift of joy that God seeks to wrap your suffering in? 

Tomorrow, we will look at how God can use your suffering to offer joy to those around you.