Joy

The days go on, long and long and longer...

and the sun is shining through the window but it is still chilly and the inside of this house is killing me.

I need to feel the warmth of sunshine on my skin.  I need to smell sunshine... you know the smell, the smell of summertime?

Winter is long and hard, even as it stretches into spring.

My head tells me that it's all ok, but my heart hurts.

and I know that it's crazy, because there are so many worse off than I am.  But that's all relative to a broken heart.

Joy is a funny thing.  We can be joyful, happy, and then all of the sudden get the wind knocked out of our sails.  Maybe just from a spoken word, or a whisper, or a thought that goes through our head, and the doubts they start and we become unsure and tentative.

Close to this day, thousands of years ago (well, maybe not this exact day, but you get the point), Jesus was traveling with His disciples. On Palm Sunday,  He made His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, and they sang Hallelujah and rejoiced and waved palm fronds.  The next week, He hung on a cross, betrayed by one of His own, separated from His Father as He took on the sin of the World.

What a difference a week made.  What a difference a day can make.

And He broke bread and worshipped and loved... even as He knew He'd be betrayed. Even as He knew the hardship would come, He accepted it.  Dare I say He embraced it, as He is embracing me now? My name... engraved on His Hand.

And He sang the Hallel... including the verse that we cling to even as we don't feel like being joyful.  "This is the day the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it."  This day.. the day of hardship. The day of separation. He rejoiced and was glad.

And while my heart hurts and I am far from rejoicing, I know that I can.  I can choose, just as He did, because He strenghtens me.  You can, too.

Rejoice, always, and again  I say rejoice. 

The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

And the sun is still shining and while all may not be right with the world at this moment, I know that it is well with my soul, even as my heart hurts. 

His grace is sufficient to give me joy.