Day 97: the Sun Will Come Up, Tomorrow

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor, a lifetime.Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning. Psalm 30:5

When I really began dealing with—and honestly feeling—the trauma of my childhood, I was inspired to be more candid about my struggles and drop my happy mask after reading how C. S. Lewis struggled with debilitating sadness and questioned God’s goodness after losing his wife, Joy, to cancer. As I matured emotionally, I delved even further into the relationship between happiness and hardship—which are often woven together, I’ve found. This exploration led me to study the life of prolific pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon who battled with severe depression.

Despite the fact that twenty-five thousand people bought copies of his sermons every week at the height of his ministry, and he got to preach to ten million people before his death in 1892, Spurgeon still had days when he didn’t want to get out of bed. Following one of his darkest moments he said, “There are dungeons beneath the castles of despair.”19

Now that I’m well past the normal midpoint of life and have surely lived more years than there are years left in my story, I’ve come to the firm belief that no one gets out of life without at least a little pain and anguish. Show me an adult who says they haven’t, and they’re either a fibber, mentally unbalanced, or have amnesia.

I’m so grateful God gives us time and space and emotions capable of processing dark nights of the soul, and I’m equally thankful that the Gospel frees us from pretending everything’s awesome when it’s not. But I’m even more glad that He gave us the mental faculties to ultimately recover our joy regardless of whether it was illegitimately hijacked or overshadowed by legitimate grief. The following passages, as it turns out, agree with the scientific research out there on happiness; namely, that our minds really do have the power to correct negative, destructive thought patterns:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom. 12:2 niv)

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been able to teach him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16 ncv)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Tim. 1:7 nkjv)

In other words, with the Holy Spirit’s help, you and I have the power to kick “stinkin’ thinkin’” to the curb and recapture hope, happiness, and peace! This doesn’t mean we have to ignore hardship or dark situations. It simply means we don’t have to be ruled by those things. Joy is a legitimate posture we have the Spirit’s power to reclaim!

• What spiritual habits have you discovered that best help renew your mind and rekindle your joy?
• How have you seen God weave together hardship and joy in your life?
• Why do you think you sometimes resist the call to choose joy in your thought-life?