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Can I Rejoice?

This question has been on my heart today since shortly after I woke up. As I look back on this underway, I have faced some new challenges and some old ones as well. I knew at the outset of this deployment that I would be challenged by ship life because I always am. I also knew that it would be a time of great growth if I remained grounded in Christ. As I've seen countless times in my life, God is always faithful. I have continued to see that truth on this cruise.

There have been some low times in the past two months. I have worked hard for things that at times don't seem to have an end. I have sought to energize myself and others while feeling alone or distanced from others. I have tried honoring God in everything that I've done.

In the midst of these efforts, I have at times tried to do it myself. I've tried to strap all of these problems on my back and failed to remember to come to Jesus with my burdens. How badly I yearn to have rest for my soul! How silly I can become when I fail to see that Christ offers that rest now. God has shown me that on this cruise.

So...can I rejoice? Can I rejoice when I'm tired? Can I rejoice when nothing is going right? Can I rejoice when it seems that I have worked hard for the right reasons and honored God and not seen the results that I expected to see? Was I really in it to honor God if I am anxious about the end or the results? Am I really a humble person? Or does pride destroy that at every opportunity?

Can I rejoice when I see the depravity of my flesh? Can I rejoice when the new life I have in Christ meets the nasty, filthy flesh that still battles for control?

By the grace of God, I can. And by the grace of God, I will.

I have been reading the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. As always, God has perfect timing and methods of speaking to me when I need Him to the most. I want to close with a couple of comments Lewis makes that are very encouraging to me.

"They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory." pg. 69

"'Ah, the Saved...what happens to them is best described as the opposite of a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts, memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water.'" pg. 70

What does suffering bring? It brings hope. It brings us into the reality that God is so good to see us through the very worst that this world can throw at us. It brings us great joy knowing that this isn't reality, and this isn't the end!

May we all be mindful of the truth that these light and momentary troubles are acheiving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all!

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