[Discoveries] 03-15-08 Joy and grief -- 1 Peter 1:6

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may 
have had to suffer grief ... -- 1 Peter 1:6*/

On the surface, this seems contradictory. Joy and grief? How can they 
coexist? If joy is the opposite of grief, then wouldn't you need to get 
rid of all grief in order to have joy?

Not so.

When we were mourning the loss of a loved one, I made an amazing 
discovery. Underneath are the everlasting arms. While others grieved 
without hope, falling through emptiness in a bottomless pit of sorrow, 
we were buoyed up by something far bigger than us or our pain. The 
sorrow passed, but the joy remained.

One day I received an email from the husband of a woman who could feel 
no love. Like so many others, she was the adult survivor of childhood 
sexual abuse. There simply is no way to measure the devastation caused 
by this childhood trauma. Yet her approach was to shut it down, to never 
"go there." Of course. Who would want to "go there"? Yet, by shutting 
down the grief, she also lost the joy. She became unable to feel.

Joy is greater than grief. But sometimes the path to joy, takes us 
through grief. There in our place of sorrow, Jesus meets us, and sorrow 
is exchanged for joy.

Be encouraged!
Dwight

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