Joy? Where Art Thou?

Good Morning,
Still a gloomy Nashville here, but we are looking for some sunshine today! I am so ready for that bright light in the sky I can taste it.
There are some people that I love to be around. Just being in their presence feels good.
I've often wondered what it would be like to look Jesus in the eye and talk to him without the knowledge of His Deity... Just an ordinary conversation... I think I would have a hundred questions and would be so drawn to him that it would be like magic. Can you just imagine the look in his eyes! The deep joy, peace, and confidence. There is no way, that one could not notice or feel the deep calm, confidence, and joy he exemplified.

In the insightful words of Elton Trueblood:
"The Christian is joyful, not because he is blind to injustice and suffering, but because he is convinced that these, in the light of the divine sovereignty, are never ultimate. . . . The humor of the Christian is not a way of denying the tears, but rather a way of affirming something which is deeper than tears."¹

Yes, a few things in life are absolutely tragic, no question about it. First among them, a joyless Christian.

I've heard it said that a person could tell what a man was like by looking at the expressions of his wife. There is probably some truth to that and it can work both ways.
Our walk with the Lord is so opposite the human, natural way. It is only the Spirit Controlled Christian that has joy in the midst of anguish, Health in the midst of sickness, light in the midst of extreme darkness.
Can we show the world Jesus in us by the expression of our spirit? The expression in our eyes?
Is there that 'something is different' going on in our lives?

We are in the midst of forgiveness constantly.
Our accuser hears a Holy Shut Up from our Savior!

A truly cheerful face comes from a joyful heart,
not from a lack of concern for life's tragedies
Proverbs 15:13, 15; 17:22 (I also think of David when in the Psalms he would ask his spirit "Why are you so downcast?"... over and over again he would remind himself of the Lord's goodness. David talked to himself quiet a bit. In this day and time we might say, "What's wrong with you" to ourself...not to forget to also speak of the benefits of knowing the Lord over and over again.)

Blessings and love to you,
Mom/Meme/Linda

1. Elton Trueblood, The Humor of Christ (New York: Harper and Row, 1964).