The Difference Between Joy & Happiness

Recently, at Abba's House, we had a situation arise that resulted in two of our housemothers walking off the job without warning. While this was very alarming to us all, the turnover rate of employees in South Africa is nothing new for us. But what always seems to happen after an employee leaves? They send you their "resignation" notice in the form of all of their complaints. Fair enough. If you're unhappy with your job and you have other opportunities, that's fine. And wanting to voice your displeasure is also fine with me. I need to know what's going on in the home that I can't see for myself while I'm still blocked from returning to South Africa. None of that really bothers me, honestly. I just sift through the complaints and look for active areas where we can make changes to help the remaining staff work better.

However, with this most recently "resignation" notice, I found myself caught between a sense of wanting to explain the true character of God as I had seem Him to be in my life, and wanting to just end the conversation knowing that this person was not in a place to really hear what I had to say. It's not the first time I've found myself in that position. But, it struck a nerve for me this time. Thankfully, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to just thank them for their feedback and bless them moving forward, and add them to my prayer list and move on.

What was it that made my heart break as I read their list of complaints? This particular woman had decided to use my visa situation as justification that, in her opinion, our ministry should be shut down. She was basically saying that it was God's way of telling us to stop what we were doing because we must be doing something wrong. This is fine. I've heard this before. But this time, it hurt not because they were using a situation that we could not control to try and dictate what our next actions should be. But because it showed how deeply wrong this person's image of God was.

I have seen many times over the 7 years that I lived in South Africa how twisted the image of God is for many people (the same in America, fyi). For many, many people, God was just a figure on a throne waiting for them to mess up so that He could send down punishments and pain to them. But that's not the God I know. That's not the God I read about in the Bible. And that's certainly not the God that has walked through the darkest valleys of my life with me, step by step. It's just not true.

The pain and "discomfort" of this life are not always sent as punishments or warnings. In fact, one of my favorite books of the Bible when I was in highschool (James) spends quite a bit of time explaining just the opposite. When painful things come your way, when life hurts and just isn't fair, it's not meant to discourage you. It's actually the opposite. It's meant to drive you back into the arms of the One who knows everything, the One who loves you more than you could ever imagine. It's meant to strengthen you, build your character, make you more and more like our Savior, Jesus. It's meant to remind you that this world is not your home. It's not meant to crush you and leave you in the dark. And it hurts my heart that so many people see it that way.

The truth is, my friends, this life is not meant to be comfortable. This world is broken because we make wrong choices, because other people make wrong choices, and because people long before us made wrong choices. This world is not our home. But to sit and think that all the bad in it has no purpose, is to now know the true character and heart of God! He allowed us free will so that we could choose Him of our own accord. He knew we would mess it up. But He was already ready for that. He had Jesus by His side at creation. Our sins were no surprise to any part of God. But, because He allows us free will to choose Him, He HAS to allow us free will to choose everything else. The amazingly beautiful part of this story, though, the part that gets overlooks so much, is the fact that God allows this broken world to turn us into the strongest, bravest, most faithful versions of ourselves that could not exist without the darkness. And He uses it to show us parts of His love, His protection, His provision, His dedication to His children that we simply would not be able to see without the darkness.

God allows the darkness because it makes the stars shine even brighter. We wouldn't even see them if we didn't have darkness. The same is true of Himself. How much of Him would we truly see if everything in life were easy? How much of Him would we lean into if we were always comfortable in this world? We're self-focused creatures. The answer is none. We would know, see, experience none of Him. And how heartbreaking would that be! So, please, stop using the bad things in this life as excuses for why you can't do something. Or using them to narrow your image of God to that of a judge and executioner all in one and nothing more. He is so much more! He is the very light that warms your soul. The light that guides your steps. And the light that shows you who you really are.