Joy Comes in the Mourning

I can hear you now, “You spelled ‘morning’ wrong!” I appreciate you checking my grammar and spelling, but I really do mean “mourning”. Like most of you, I have suffered devastating losses in my life. There were times that the grief, pain, and despair were almost more than I could endure. As I worked through the raw emotions of mourning, God reminded me of his goodness and brought deep joy into my life.

A look in Webster’s Dictionary for the definition of “joy” showed “delight, glee, bliss”. Those words describe the world’s view of joy as an overstated feeling of happiness. My view, as a Christian, is about Biblical joy. Biblical joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with inner contentment and satisfaction, because we know God uses these difficult circumstances to accomplish His work in and through our lives.

Recently I made a decision that, quite frankly, is causing me to mourn. The decision to end a longstanding friendship and relationship was difficult and I struggled with “trust and obey”, or in this case, “obey and trust”. I have known for a long time that I needed to trust God with this one, but I just could not get to the “obey” part. God was clear in his direction to me; end the relationship. There was no way I could trust God if I wasn’t willing to first obey him. Finally, I was ready to obey and I ended the relationship. Yes, there is grief, mourning, and the temptation to fall back, but I am holding firm through the pain and trusting God to accomplish His work in me for his glory. Even Paul struggled with obedience as he describes in Romans, “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” – Romans 7:19 (NLT)

I am reminded of Abraham and his son Isaac. God gave Abraham and his wife a miraculous baby in their old age and promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. When God commanded Abraham to build an altar and sacrifice Isaac, Abraham had the unfathomable choice to obey and trust that God would fulfill his promise although all seemed lost. When God saw the obedience of Abraham, he provided another sacrifice, but Abraham had been willing to sacrifice his beloved son. God brought joy to Abraham as he worshipped the greatness of God.

Psalm 30:5b declares, “Weeping may go on all night, but in the morning there is joy.” There is joy in the morning and joy in the mourning!