Even Though

"As the cold can move you deeper toward the fire, struggling can move you deeper toward God, who warms you with joy.  Struggling can deepen joy.
Even though.
Even now.
Even though I will be joyful in the God of my salvation."
The Greatest Gift Ann VosKamp

Jacob wrestled.  He wrestled in birth, he wrestled for the blessing, for a wife, .....he wrestled God himself.  Striving.  For what he wanted.  For what would prosper him, provide security.

Until he began to learn what is real.  This is a shadow.  But how easy it is to think where you are is all there is.  And that it is complete reality.  Humans are so ethnocentric ..not only in our family, our town, our culture but our reality.  We think that all that we see, feel, touch is all that there is...or at least all that is important.

Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakable remains.” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Yes, our world is real, but its temporal reality offers us but a glimpse, a faint foreshadowing of the greater reality that is to come.” 
― Louis A. Markos, A to Z with C. S. Lewis

“Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows. But will you come?” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

(C.S. Lewis quotes on reality found on goodreads)

Hebrews 12:1-3  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

"Even though, even now, Habkkuk turns the focus.  The secret of joy is always a matter of focus:  a resolute focusing on the Father, not on the fears.  All fear is but the notion that God's love ends.  When does He ever end?"  The Greatest Gift, Ann Voskamp

But he doesn't end.  He is more than what we can see.  More than we can know. He is the God immortal, invisible.  And holy. And loving.

May He grant us eyes to truly see.  Hearts to truly be.  Minds to truly know Him and His reality.

Joy in Pain

" There are a thousand ways you can suffer brave.

And no one knows."

" Struggling and rejoicing are not two chronological steps, one following the other, but two concurrent movements, one fluid with the other"

"Even know, I will be joyful in the God of my salvation"

The Greatest Gift...Ann VosKamp

Ever wonder how the martyrs do it?  Really?  The stories aren't just fairy tales.  They are real people who feel pain-physical and emotional...and spiritual --like us.

Forget martyrs.

  Sometime the everyday, western world life can be painful too.  We look around, and gee, we really shouldn't say we suffer.  We have food, clothing and shelter. And no one is shooting at most of us.  We can say what we want, when we want.  We can work, play, fight, go to the doctor, choose to worship and where and when.  We can change jobs change our location, change styles.  We can cry, create and give.  

But we still hurt.  Our hearts yearn for what is not.  Joys disappoint.  Hopes fade.  Dreams die.  Friends leave.  Lovers hate.  His presence sometimes seems far.  His provision is a mystery.  He plan leads to a place we do not know.  Sin has corrupted our world thoroughly. 

 Our inmost being knows that all is not right in the world.  Things are awful, really.  One of the terrors of adulthood is understanding just how out of control the world really is.  The world at large.  And our own little world.  There is very little that is safe, predictable, painless even in the smallest microcosm of our itty- bitty, self-absorbed world.

Things go wrong.  people go wrong.  we go wrong.  

But the rejoicing is to happen, not when all is right in our own little world, or the universe at large.

It happens in the circumstances.  

17 Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

19 The Lord God[c] is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

Hababbuk 3 (NKJV Bible Gateway)

BlueLetterBible.org tells me that joy means gladness.  I will be glad in the God of my safety.  It looks bad for Habakkuk--enemy attack, no food, no shelter.  But He claims God as his safety, and chooses joy.  

It is good that we are to abide in him. Wherewithal...I know that I do not have it in myself.  But He works in us to will to act according to His good purposes. Philippians 2:13

It's who He is, not what our circumstances are that bring us joy.  

May He be He fill our vision.

Hebrews 12:2

Isaiah 26:3

⁷ "Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls"—Habakkuk 3:17


The past week didn't turn out like I dreamed and planned.  Our lovely week "off" that was to be filled with home and organizing, ended up with alot of running a and unexpected little emergencies, like an overflowing dishwasher!  Nothing of eternal consequence or really a truly serious problem.  We did have food to eat and a house this week~!  


But it had me down, angry-frustrated, tempted to despair.  Despair over lost time...that is a plague to me.  I thought of this verse and remembered that I needed to trust the Father, even in these piddly things that daunt me.  


When I looked the verses up again, I was struck by the fact that the passage doesn't really end there. There is more.....


¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:18 NKJV


It doesn't end in "trust"...the trust ends in....joy.
One of the essential humus ingredients to grow joy is trust in the Father regardless of the circumstances.


This differs from trust in God to make everything "alright", whatever our definition may be.  As a dear godly woman taught me-think of the worst outcome of the situation you are facing or the most troubling fear you have.  
Now, is God big enough?
That is trust in HIM, who He is, His character, our relationship in Christ.
And that is the soil of joy.