NEW! No time to read? You can listen here while your hands are busy
IN TODAY’S LETTER
- Tools & tactics to help you find the light
- Music to lift your spirits
- Winner of our February giveaway package
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, while happiness happens “When our happenings happen to happen the way we happen to want our happenings to happen[1].”
So is joy our spiritual birthright even when happiness happens to elude us?
My friend Carole Lewis joyfully inhabits the decade just ahead of me, although to meet her is to assume she’s much younger. She walks vigorously, tracks her exercise and food intake conscientiously, and smiles habitually.
I see Carole almost every week in my online First Place for Health Bible[2] study. I’m struck by her cheerful demeanor and the mature example she sets as the senior member of our group. She’s content, focused on the needs of others, and a strong advocate of the power of a thankful heart.[3]
I knew Carole for several years before I realized all she had experienced to arrive at this oasis of gratitude:
- Financial difficulties and losing the family business to bankruptcy.
- The death of her 39-year-old daughter Shari who was struck by a drunk driver in the driveway of her in-law’s home on Thanksgiving Day, leaving a devastated husband and three teenage girls.
- The loss of all Carole and husband Jonny owned when Hurricane Ike hurled their Galveston, TX, home into the sea.
- A seventeen-year battle with Jonny’s cancer before God took him home.
Our mutual friend Christen writes, “If anyone had a reason to be in a constant state of anxiety, worry, fear or stress, it’s Carole. If anyone had a reason to be miserable, to be bitter or angry or unhappy. . . but Carole found reasons to rejoice—and is still finding them, as a widow in her eighties—because she is absolutely convinced. . . that God is good and that he is sovereign.” [4]
Carole reminds me so much of some of you.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” Elisabeth Kűbler-Ross
But does that mean that genuinely grateful people no longer get discouraged?
In last week’s letter, I copped to tussling with the black dog of depression. While I’ve kicked the mutt out for now, he prowls the perimeter of my soul seeking any scraps I might toss his way. Following that post, one of you commented that circumstances will naturally make us sad, but sometimes we throw the word “depression” around too easily.
“My family counselor son said to me, 'Mom, you aren’t depressed. You are very sad.' He went on to say that there is a difference between the two. 'If you are very sad and don’t come out of that sadness after a couple of weeks, then you have probably slipped into depression.' Gratefully I realized I wasn’t depressed. But there certainly is a lot of sadness these days and sometimes, I think, it’s hard to distinguish between the two.” – Miriam
Thank you, Miriam! (See what I learn from my friends?)
Those of you who’ve experienced the weight of chronic depression can speak to the value of time well spent with a qualified counselor or therapist. Medication carefully prescribed can also help restabilize brain chemistry that’s gone awry due to trauma.
And when we lack the words to articulate our sorrow, the psalms of lament speak for us.
O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day? Psalm 13:1-2
Pour it out, friends. Just beware of swimming in it. It’s colder in that space than a polar plunge in February (friend me on Facebook to find out how I know this.)
I’ve often joked at women’s retreats that I have way more to say than anyone has time to hear. That’s true today as well. We’ll wait till next week to explore a few things that have helped me along the way when dealing with difficult circumstances:
- Finding the light
- Raising the praise
- Focusing on others
One of you reminded me of the wisdom in this contemporary Irish hymn by Keith and Kristyn Getty, “When Trials Come.” (Thanks, Gwen!)
Let this be our benediction today.
“Within the night I know Your peace
The breath of God brings strength to me
And new each morning mercy flows
As treasures of the darkness grow
As treasures of the darkness grow."
IT’S YOUR TURN
What’s one thing that lifts your spirits when you’re down? Please leave a comment below. I respond to each comment and reply to every email. I’ll share some of your responses next week.
Seeking the Light with you,
Maggie
Congratulations to Christine L of Naperville, IL, the winner of our February prize package.
[1] Credited to Stuart Briscoe
[3] A Thankful Heart: How Gratitude Brings Hope and Healing to Your Life, Carole Lewis (Gospel Light)
[4] A Thankful Heart – a My Place for Bible study publication – Christen Ditchfield, © 2024