In Process – Sunday, October 13, 1985
The scriptures say, “Men are that they might have joy,”1 and we are left asking ourselves, if that is truly the intent, why is the earth a place of so much pain? It must groan under the weight of human sorrow. We run sometimes without meaning and die before we intend. We scramble for bread to fill us and, filled, worry if we will have enough tomorrow. Weeds grow in our grass, disease cripples us, disappointment dashes us; and, through it all, we question if something, somewhere, has gone terribly wrong.
Why would the Lord prescribe for us joy and then allow us so much else, so much that is a far cry away? We can only assume that the pain we sometimes face is part of the process of attaining that joy. Like a great novel, we are, indeed, in process—still unfinished. Perhaps the deepest joy can never come to us where we are, bound by giving misplaced importance to the ultimately unimportant; insecure, our self-worth built upon the sand; impatient, our perspective too intimately linked to the pressures of the here and now. It may be that we are not yet prepared to know and treasure the heights of joy the Lord would have us know.
There is a garden bulb which must be frozen before it can flower. Perhaps the human spirit may be such a bulb.
The pain that is a part of every life can, if endured well, burn off the weaknesses in our soul that would always stop us from experiencing a fullness of joy, weaknesses that make us judge others instead of recognizing our dependence on them, weaknesses that make us tremble with fear instead of having faith in the Lord. It is like one woman said, suddenly made penniless by a business failure but still faced with the responsibility to support a family, “I’ll never be upset by spilling milk again.” How can one learn to endure if we never have anything to endure?
Joy is knowing calm in the midst of a tempest.
Joy is to depend on the Lord.
Joy is extending our sympathies to all of humanity, putting it all in perspective, and overcoming.
The Lord allows us the difficulties we sometimes face in life, because what He finally hopes is that we can sing Him as song without a note of sadness.
October 13, 1985
Broadcast Number 2,930