Many events have come together in the last two weeks that truly can only be recorded in my journal...but this much I found out --
In the Christian world much is touted about the minimal importance of happiness. What's only supposed to be valid is Joy and in fact happiness is supposed to defer to Joy.
Because of what I've experienced in the last two weeks, I believe God wants us to have a happiness that lives in concert with deep inner Joy. I believe circumstances DO matter to God. How I extend that thought is that circumstances do not frighten, intimidate, overwhelm, discourage, embarrass or vex God. God's character is so Love that apparently Love not only covers a multitude of sins, but strengthens the ability to over ride negative responses to circumstances.
That is not to say that God doesn't weep and moan and cry out to us as surely as we weep and moan in our limited wisdom and cry out to God. But that all pervasive Love immediately transforms the direst of predicaments into possibilities for new life and new birth and new growth. Happiness in the most temporal of definitions IS important to God. Anything else is too gnostic to support the incarnation.
If you are not happy, then Joy is compromised. The dimension that defines us in different ways in our ability through the Holy Spirit to feel strength in weakness, hope in sorrow and vision during times of discouragement and so forth because we surrender the limits of our understanding, not the limits of our experience. There are no limits to what we can experience with and through the Triune God.
Wow... don't miss out.... save the platitudes and open up the invitation to a full and complete surrender. If the ruling body is getting stuck on some technical issues in your church this week, have a go round of , not Joys and Sorrows, but Joys and Happiness. Being happy is important to God. It's the place where we are unstuck.
Totally believe this....
Love,
Deborah
