Finding Joy When Life Hurts

It was one of the most difficult seasons I ever walked through. This season made me feel empty, depleted, small, and unloved.   Surprisingly, it also became the one season I look back on and remember experiencing more love than I have ever felt. 

What began as a failed friendship, turned out to be what drove me to a closer relationship with God. When God finally answered and brought me out of that season, it brought more spiritual growth than any other ever had. God also made provision to have the special people I would need to remind me of His great mountain of love there surrounding me as He began to walk me to the top of the highest spiritual height I had ever experienced. 

Sometimes in our deepest despair, we look at our lives and think hard is all there is. All there is ever going to be. We can easily despair because of hard situations and lose hope. 

Habakkuk wrote these well-known verses in Habakkuk 3:17-18:

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, YET I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation” 

I can stare a long time at these verses…

At first glance, all I can read into them is the heartbreak.  The searching for answers. The pain in the journey. Grief and despair from loss. Longing for a heart’s desire that hasn’t come. A feeling of need that hasn’t been provided. Cancer, divorce, a barren womb, financial setbacks. And when you take an even closer look,  you notice there was not even a sacrifice or offering to be offered.  

And that whole even no sacrifice or the offering to be offered thing? That one gets me the most. When you are like David and you are far from the temple and still trying to worship.  When in the midst of such pain, God seems so very far away. The heart pain at a time like that is unimaginable. I know. I’ve been there. 

So how do we serve God with gladness of heart when we feel anything but glad? How do we serve with joy when our very soul feels empty? How do we rejoice when our hearts are sad? How do we worship God when we feel He is so very far away? 

The answer may not seem simple but it is there. There is more in Jesus than just what our eyes can see.  More than what we temporarily feel.  With Jesus, there is more going on behind the scenes of our heartbreak than what we can wrap our minds around. For Isaiah 55 8-9 also reminds us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God’s infinite thoughts to do us good are far greater than our limited ability to comprehend them.

Let’s take a closer look at the next verse Habakkuk 3:19.  It reads, “The Lord my Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like those of a deer, enables me to walk on mountain heights.” 

And make sure you don’t forget the very last part of the verse…

“For the choir director on stringed instruments.” Don’t ever leave that part out or you will miss out on the whole point of what the writer was saying. 

This my friend was a faith hymn meant to be sung not a place to sit down in despair and lose hope.  This was meant to be a place of celebration to look forward to not of failure and hopelessness.  This was meant to be a new song when the old had lost it’s tune. 

This verse full of heartbreak was meant to remind us all that this world is not our home. The pain in our journey is not all there is. And most certainly in the midst of all our pain and suffering it is not meant to be the end. This verse was meant to be a reminder that though the things in this world may pass away our hope in Jesus never will. 

Sweet friend, better days are coming. 

God never promised us a life without pain.  Believe me when I share with you that most days I wish He had.  

Perhaps when we stare at these verses we realize what God has promised is not always a life without pain but a life of unimaginable joy despite them. He promised us complete and entirely ATTAINABLE joy. Contentment in the midst of discontent. Strength in the midst of weakness. Grace that covers you in the midst of great trial. 

He gives us JOY unspeakable.  No stipulations. No, and, ifs or buts or exceptions.  This verse is proof of a promise. Available to us even in the direst circumstances. 

So how we get there when the distance between heart-wrenching pain and hymn singing faith and joy seem to be too vast a journey? We take the trip in stages, one step at a time because some journeys weren’t meant to be taken in a day. 

Our Heavenly Father “enables us” to walk on till we get to where we are going. Until we walk out of our valleys with our heads up high. Until we reach the top of the rocky and tall mountain we are climbing. And sometimes we just have to stop and ask Him for some “enabling”.  

Friend, He never promised our feet would not feel pain in the climb.  He didn’t promise there would be days that wouldn’t be hard. He didn’t promise we wouldn’t have to keep climbing despite all kinds of weather. But He has and will forever promise us that we will feel the thrill in the heights when we get there. 

And sweet Sister, there will be a view that only your eyes will see when you get to the top of the mountain. 

Today as you keep putting one foot in front of the other. As you keep climbing today. Don’t lose sight of hope. Don’t forget to keep singing. Crank up some praise music today. We have something to sing about despite the pain because we have a promise our journey is going to be worth it. 

And this Ruth 2:16 girl will be cheering you on every step of the way.  I can’t wait to share the view with you at the top. 

See you in the Field,

Susan