Sadness in the Midst of Joy

Sadness in the Midst of Joy
March 30, 2011

“He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.”
- Isaiah 53:3-4 New King James Version


10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah 35:10
(New International Version, ©2011)

I’ve got to admit, I’m feeling a mixture of sadness and joy today. The joy comes from the fact that I did one of my “nice” things today – 2 loads of laundry, new sheets and towels, a “comfort” food dinner (mixed salad with TJ’s dressing), then took a shower to feel clean when I get into bed. The sadness comes from the fact that I am now officially unemployed – I filed for unemployment today. Well, maybe the Lord has something better in mind for me as far as work is concerned. I get many of my Bible verses from a site called www.biblegateway.com. The first one is the verse of the day and tells from what I can figure out – how Jesus understood all our grief and sorrows, yet we rejected him. The second, I searched for in the topic index. It sounds like it’s about Jesus coming back to take all His followers to Heaven and how our sorry will be replaced by joy in the Lord’s presence. It’s incredible that both verses come from Isaiah. What I was actually searching for instead, was to see if there was a verse (well, other than “…Sarah laughed” because she was pregnant at an advanced age) that told about God’s humor. God must have a sense of humor, since for 6 months I’ve felt terrible and now that I feel better, I have no work. Please – no advice – ok? Again, this is something that I have to work out between the Lord and I in prayer, in these blogs, in reading the Bible. The Lord appears to be doing much work in my life right now. Sometimes, it’s such a pleasure, but other times it’s so confusing. Hey, God, help me out here, ok?