Joy in Discouragement

We’ve been thinking about discouragement this week.  What are the things that get us down, make us want to give up, and drain the joy from our hearts?  Sometimes it seems like the greatest source of discouragement is not from one big thing, but rather the accumulation of lots of little things.  

Joy in fixing broken furniture

For example—sickness.  We’re not talking about cancer or something life-threatening— just a normal virus or cold.  It’s not the end of the world, but it drains you of energy, it messes up your routines, it may mean you need to cancel appointments, it may mean you don’t get to see your friends.  It’s not dramatically bad, but it’s discouraging.

Another example—things breaking down.  It’s natural enough.  In this world, things break down and stop working at times.  It might be a car, computer, phone or stapler.  It might be a light bulb or clothes, a piece of furniture or a bucket.  It’s not such a big deal, and yet—if you needed that bucket today, it can be a real frustration.

Another example—family.  When something goes wrong with a family member it can be very discouraging.  It may be sickness or money problems.  It may be a heart issue or an accident.  It could be a strain in the relationship or miscommunication.  But when someone in our family has a problem, we tend to feel it more and it can get us down.

Sometimes, these problems happen at regular intervals and we can take them in stride.  But sometimes, as the saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.”  Now there are those who might say this old adage is nothing more than feelings—It feels like it’s pouring, but it’s no more than the usual problems life throws at you.  Others might say, that’s just how life is.  Sometimes troubles come all at the same time—a coincidence.  You are welcome to your opinion, but we have come to see that sometimes it seems like there is something more sinister at work.  Like some power is actively working to discourage us and keep us from joy, contentment and peace.

It felt that way when a brother of mine had to deal with a car, refrigerator and plumbing problems at his house—all breaking down at once.  It felt that way when a sister who just wanted to get some rest, suddenly had a guest she just couldn’t say no to visit and stay for a long time.  And it especially felt that way yesterday when we went to worship with our teammates.

Joy in new plants

Our teammates have been sick—a virus that took the whole family down and wiped them out and left them tired, out of routine and a little bit isolated.  So the plan was to go over to them to spend some time worshiping this Sunday.  That was the plan, but as we walked up the street toward their front door, we noticed a great big speaker sitting outside their house.  It seemed like a bad sign.  Sure enough, as soon as we started strumming the first chords on the guitar, someone started speaking on the microphone.  Then, as we started to sing the loud island music started up.

Now, do I believe that the neighbors were out to destroy our worship time, and discourage us?  Not by any means.  But do I believe there was some force at work trying to discourage us? Absolutely.  We were undaunted—determined to praise.  And so we did.  Tom sawed away at the guitar strumming as loud as he could and we sang from the heart, trying to drown out the conflicting melody and beat of the music blaring over the loud speaker.  It just so happened that when we stopped playing, the music outside would also stop, and when we began to play and sing, the music would start again.  This happened multiple times.

Joy in karate (despite the heat)

We believe that there is more to the world than what we see.  We don’t see coincidences in these things.  We see a power at work actively looking for any means possible to steal our joy.  It happens, and sometimes it works.  Sometimes we start to lose sight of our joy.  But not yesterday.  Yesterday we sang.  We sang over the blaring music.  We sang into the face of discouragement.  We sang a song about victory and remembered that we have it.  We held onto our joy.  And then when we finished our worship time and the music outside kept going, we danced with the kids and fellowshipped with one another in loud voices.  Then we went out and greeted the neighbors with joy.  

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The new family is feeling better. Pray that any lingering symptoms would go away and that they can dive back into island life this week. Our son’s exams finished and he is enjoying his first day of a two week break from local school. Tom prayed for an island brother this week and he has found healing! The trash truck came a couple times this week— we never know when it will come and have to have our bags ready to go, but we are thankful that it has come when we’ve needed it. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
We continue to pray for unity among island brothers and sisters, and especially that old grudges and divisions wouldn’t be passed on to new people. Pray for an island sister whose college-aged son who is studying abroad has gotten himself into a messy situation. Pray that God would clear a way forward. Pray for our daughter as she finishes her term at school this week and travels back to the islands. She will be traveling back to the islands with other students but without an adult accompanying them (a first for her), pray that all her travels go smoothly and that she makes it back to us safely on Sunday. We have heard that airport workers might be striking this week and we have a teammate traveling— pray for fair resolution, for good health for our teammate and that all flights would go as normal. We still haven’t seen the boy that stole from us a couple weeks ago (he normally is a close to daily visitor). We had a tense interaction with a longtime friend who always wants to insist that we believe the same things— pray that she might see clearly how we differ. Fasting begins later this week— may God guide us all as we dedicate the coming weeks to prayer and praise.