On Happiness Part 2

 

I'm not seeking after nor spending my time or energy seeking happiness for myself   - I no longer wish to focus any aspect of my life on myself.  I seek for my wife, my children,  my neighbor but not for me.

I may take joy in a spectacular sunset or a wildflower I've stumbled across in a hidden valley or the sunlight dappled water water of a mountain lake  - yet, all those things are God made, God designed and are therefore infused with His presence,  His essence.  They bear His fragrance.  His fingerprints are all around us, if we could but see them! He is perfect in all His ways and perfection is so exhilarating after being surrounded by the flawed works of men. I no longer desire what is man-made  - born of man (well, I do like this pen and notebook) but, can't you sense, all that is of man is temporal,  it will not last, it's all fading away, even as I write this! One day, these pages, these words of mine, will shrivel and fade  - and only what came from Him will last. I desire to be made in His likeness: may I desire what He desires,  pursue what He pursues, live as He lives and die as He died  - on behalf of others.

I'm not happy and I'm ok. I've made peace with my soul. The Bible is full of melancholy,  you know. The Books of Ecclesiastes and Lamentations.  Rachel weeping over her children. Sitting by the rivers of Babylon and weeping.  But we have this promise from The Lord   - "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy". They that are sorrowful for the sin in this life shall rejoice in the next  - for it shall be a sinless existence,  where no one treats another with anything but pure, genuine love.

Jesus was a man of sorrows,  well acquainted with grief. The Scriptures tell us to "mourn with those who mourn". Sorrow is an integral part of our lives, as Christians.  We weep while the world rejoices so that we may one day rejoice while the world weeps.

Take heart beloved Bride, loved by My Father  - your mourning SHALL turn into dancing, your weeping will endure for the night, while spiritual darkness  covers the earth  - but joy will come whenever the light of the Son dawns in a human heart. As My light dawns fully in your heart, your sorrows will not even be remembered when you behold Me in the fulness of My glory. You will forget your pain as a mother forgets the pain of child birth for the joy of bringing a man into the world. As You enter fully into Me, the pain of this present life will fade away and every tear will be wiped from your eye: I myself will do this and I will preserve them as a memorial to the life you chose as you chose to pursue Me  - not happiness   - in this way, I will redeem all your suffering, My son, my beloved, Chris, who you know to be a man after My own heart. 

Rejoice for you have a new name and a new life to come  - remember,  the former things are passing away, behold, I make all things new.