Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Ultimate Hope for Today's Headlines"

"Squeezed by Suffering"

"Take Back Your Joy"

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Dannah Gresh: Here’s a question to think about. Are sorrow and joy mutually exclusive?

In Romans 5:3–4, Paul wrote, “We also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.”

In 1 Peter 4:13, Peter encouraged the believers to “rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.”

And in John 16:20 Jesus offered comfort, “You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.”

Paul described himself as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, but how on earth can this be? Aren’t sorrow and joy opposites? And if so, isn't it impossible to be both sad and joyful at the same time? Well, I’m glad you asked.

I’m your host Dannah Gresh, and you’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. 

Today we’re talking one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life—the intermingling of sorrow and joy. And to kick us off, we’re gonna spend some time with my good friend Habakkuk. Yeah, we’re pretty tight. So tight that I actually wrote a whole Bible study on his life. It’s called Habakkuk: Remembering God’s Faithfulness When He Seems Silent. Now this man, he experienced a lot of sorrow. His story is a special one to me, and not too long ago, I got to share about it on the Revive Our Hearts daily program. I’d love to share part of that message with you now.

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Let’s look at Habakkuk 3 verse 1. It says, “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.“ Now, that’s not a word you say every day, is it? What is a Shigionoth? If you don’t know what that is, you won’t really know the fact that this isn’t just a prayer, but it’s a song. It was a specific type of song.

I actually began to study it, and there’s not a lot known about it. There are pieces here and there, but I can tell by looking at these words—the lyrics to the song, as well as some little pieces of information we know—that Habakkuk hasn’t started to fake it. And you know what? I have seen that. I have seen Christians fake it.

I have seen Christians who instead of saying, “I’m grieved! I’m hurting! This is hard,” they act like it doesn’t hurt! I don’t think that serves us well. I think the beauty of Habakkuk is that, even as he moves into a place of praise, he remains honest. 

And the lyrics tell us, in Habakkuk 3:17–18:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines [those don’t sound like happy lyrics, do they?], the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food . . . the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

He’s still being honest. These lyrics, that sounds like a hard day on a hobby farm, right? But no, that’s not what it was at all! This would have the economic portfolio of the nation of Judah completely collapsing, completely falling away!

This would have been the Great Depression; this would have been World War ll. That’s where they were. The lyrics tell me that Habakkuk hasn’t forgotten that things are hard and they’re going to get worse, but he’s chosen to sing and to praise God anyway. 

The other thing I learned is that a Shigionoth tends to be a song that starts slow, like a dirge—it is full of sadness—but then it changes pace. The pace change was one of the marks of a Shigionoth, and that pace would become more hopeful, perhaps even more joyful.

As I studied that I thought, That sounds crazy! Who writes a song like that? But I searched and searched. I wanted to find one that maybe would have been more modern and reflected what perhaps the song that Habakkuk was teaching his people to sing would have sounded like. And I found one! I would like to play it for you.

[The American spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” begins with a female tenor voice singing the words at a slow, drawn-out pace.]

Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home;
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.

[The pace picks up and the singers begin clapping their hands enthusiastically as the lead voice intensifies in tempo and happy emotion on the verse:]

I looked over Jordan and what did I see, comin’ for to carry me home?
A band of angels comin’ after me, comin’ for to carry me home! 

[They repeat the opening refrain, faster now as the song picks up a swing tempo with great expression.]

Dannah: So that is a Shigionoth. It starts slow, with the sadness and the struggle of the time and the story, and then it moves into joy, into hope. And we find a lot of them in the black spiritual songs that were written during the time of slavery in our own country (woe to us!).

But those men and women who were enslaved, that believed in the Lord, they were looking past their circumstances. What was she singing about? That was Etta James singing a song. It’s contested who the author is, but they’re expressing the angst, they’re expressing the pain, and yet they’re looking at a future hope!

What was that future hope? A chariot . . . a chariot to heaven! They said, “Whatever happens here on this earth, whatever hardships we endure, we do have heaven to look forward to. We do have the second coming of Jesus to look forward to. We do have an ultimate hope that trumps everything else on the earth!”

And what we’re learning from Habakkuk is this: the righteous person who lives by faith, in those times of trouble, in those times of pain, they dig down deep to figure out what really matters! And when you do, you find you still have something to sing about . . . when you have Jesus! And Habakkuk does that, he models that.

Dannah: I love what we learn from Habakkuk. He was honest about his grief, he sang the song of sorrow, but then—then he made a choice to change his tone, to lift his voice higher, to sing the song of hope. And friend, if Habakkuk could have hope, then you and I certainly can, too . . . because something spectacular has happened since Habakkuk’s day. Christ has come! He has died for sinners. And He has risen from the grave! Scripture calls him our living hope. There’s no better reason to lift our voices in hopeful, joyful song.

There’s more information about my Bible study on Habakkuk when you go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and choose this episode. 

So, sometimes being “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” looks like making a decision to sing, and I can’t think of a woman on earth who demonstrates this more beautifully than my friend Joni Eareckson Tada. 

Joni’s story is a powerful one. When she was seventeen, she broke her neck in a diving accident and became a quadriplegic. This tragedy certainly led to deep sorrow. But God used that diving accident to captivate Joni’s heart. Decades later, her spirit is so saturated with Scripture and the joy of the Lord that she radiates it. God has turned her sorrow into singing—literally. She and Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth had a conversation about this very thing. Here’s Nancy.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Joni, I have to say that over the years, each time I see you—of course you’re always in your wheelchair. You always have a smile. There’s often a hymn. I’ve heard you break out into singing, even! You are warm and inviting and engaging and connecting with people who are standing in line to talk to you, to ask things of you and ask questions.

I see you in that public arena. You always seem to be living out this message. I have to tell you, that sometimes I wonder, “Does Joni ever really crater emotionally?” I mean, I’m a public person and I know how to do what you have to do at times, when you’re feeling very tired, very depleted, or very worn out. But you seem to always have that joy. Do you ever have to just fight for faith?

Joni Eareckson Tada: I’ve lately had a very big battle with chronic pain. Earlier this year I was in bed for a couple of months—about two and a half months—with very serious, very severe back pain. It was mind-bending pain. I felt like I was caving in.

I had many dark nights when I just could not ask my husband to wake up one more time to turn me. So I’d just grit my teeth and I stuck it out until sunrise when my girlfriend was about to arrive and get me up because I just could not ask him to get me up one more time.

Yes, there are many times when my disability pushes me up against a wall, and I feel like I’m at a dead-end emotionally. Somebody once told me, “When you feel like that, Joni, just turn around and face that wall and walk through it. You’ll find Jesus in the middle of the wall.” He was right.

I think that nobody really can understand your pain, except the Lord Jesus. I don’t expect that people should understand that when I speak of brightness and the joy of knowing the Lord Jesus and the sweetness and the intimacy of the Savior’s love. I can’t say all that in one breath and convince you that yes, I have many times of anxiety and fear and doubt.

But Nancy, it is at those times—and they happen all the time—that I fall back on the wonderfully godly habits that are just part of my character now. "We rejoice in suffering because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character" (Romans 3:5–6). I’ve changed. I’m no longer the 14-year-old kid that I was once back some 30-odd-years ago.

I’m a woman who has been transformed from glory to glories. I’ve beheld my Savior, and that has been my salvation that in those darkest of moments. I’ve fallen back onto habits that just bring me to the foot of the cross. If my back is hurting, let’s stop and pray. We could be in an elevator. We could be in a hotel lobby.

If I’m with a friend and I’m sensing that I’m tired, I’ll ask them, “Let’s sing a hymn. Can we sing a hymn right now? What’s your favorite Scripture song?” Something, anything to pull my focus on heavenly glories above, where my focus is called to be in Colossians chapter 3 (v. 1).

One more thing Nancy—I know that this life is short. I know that my quadriplegia isn’t going to last forever. I know that I don’t want to get to heaven and look in the rear view mirror and think, “Jesus, why did I waste all those sufferings? Life was so short. It was but a blip on my eternal screen. How could I have doubted you? How could I have lived so selfishly?”

I mean, I know that heaven is about to break on earth’s horizon. Everything I do here on earth, every choice I make, every decision has a direct bearing on my capacity for service and joy and worship in heaven. I don’t want to miss that chance here on earth. I want to redeem the opportunity. That’s just part of the character, the habit that God has ingrained in me.

I boast in my affliction. I rejoice in the limitation. I glory in the infirmity because I know then that Christ’s power rests on me—it rests on all our friends listening who would do the same.

Nancy: But that doesn’t mean it gets easier.

Joni: Nope.

Nancy: You’ve said in some ways, it’s getting harder. I think it would be safe to say that the potential for discouragement and becoming weary in the battle doesn’t all relate to your disability. Some if it is just being a human being. Some of it is being a woman. Some of it is being a wife. Some of it is being in the public eye. There are challenges associated with all of that, that can make us prone to discouragement.

I’m thinking of Pilgrim’s Progress, which I’ve been reading recently. All the way to the Celestial City for this pilgrim, for Christian, there are challenges.

Joni: It’s interesting that you mention that. I was in my mother’s Ocean City condominium earlier this year. My mom has long since gone to be with Jesus. But I found my father’s old copy of Pilgrim’s Progress from the early 1900s. It’s all bruised and battered and dirty and the pages are yellow.

I turned to that last chapter where Christian, where Pilgrim, can see that Celestial City. There it is. Oh my goodness! He starts wading through this river, this turmoil, this horrible maelstrom of problems and fears and anxieties, drowning him, pushing him down.

Nancy: Right at the finish line!

Joni: Right at the finish line! But he holds onto the shoulder of Hopeful, and Hopeful doesn’t look back. He kept going. He kept going.

I want to finish the race well. I want to fight the good fight. I want to cross the finish line and not be ashamed of my Savior. I so long to hear the words: “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Nancy: Joni, I can’t tell you how many times in my own “running of the race,” when I have been weary, frustrated, anxious, fearful, and plagued at times with doubts or fears or stumblings—how many times the Lord has brought you to mind.

Joni: Really?

Nancy: Yes. Over and over and over again. I’ve heard other people say this as well. One, it’s been a reminder to pray for you because I know that whatever I’m enduring that day, your challenges are greater in many respects than what I experience on a daily basis just in a physical realm.

But also God has used you to be a “Hopeful” to this pilgrim.

Joni: Well, it’s interesting that you’re mentioning that you struggle, that you doubt, that you have anxieties, you get weary, because that encourages me. But that’s another evidence of the book of James, where we’re told to “confess our sins one to another, so that we might be healed” (James 5:16, paraphrase).

Dannah: What an encouraging conversation between these two dear friends of mine. That’s Joni Eareckson Tada sharing part of her story with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. You know, Joni talked about setting her focus on heavenly glories. Joy didn’t just fall upon her like pixie dust. She had to fix her eyes on the joy set before her.

Sometimes joy won’t come naturally. We have to grab hold of it. That’s why we’re about to listen to part of an episode from our Grounded podcast called “Reclaiming Your Joy.” It’s a conversation between my friend Portia Collins and Nicole Jacobsmeyer, a woman who knows what it is to suffer. She’s endured assault, miscarriage, the breakup of her parents’ marriage, and even cancer. Portia talks with her specifically about fighting for joy in the face of her cancer diagnosis. Let’s listen.

Portia Collins: You said that your cancer diagnosis actually shook your world and muted your joy. So my question is, did you get your joy back? Take us through what that looked like? How did you get your joy back?

Nicole Jacobsmeyer: Yes, so that was one of my worst situations that I could have walked through because it wasn't just me going through it anymore. I had three little kids at the time. And my husband was in his first year of pediatric residency. So, we had so much going on. I felt this responsibility to my family, as mothers should.

But then, I was going through cancer and the worst depression I have ever walked through. It was in that time of just being still before the Lord. As a very go-getter type person, now I'm confined to my bed trying to heal. I can't serve anyone, can't do anything for myself. God met me there in the brokenness, in my questions, in my frustrations, in my anger, so much anger in that season. I just had to show up as authentic before the Lord as I could, because He can take it. And He met me there. 

It was through so many verses that started to pull me out, realizing I am not alone in this while I feel so alone. And while I feel like I'm the only one going through this specific trial, I'm not and God is with me. There's so many verses that were able to help hold me—just verse after verse, story after story throughout the Word on suffering and pain, and the obedience and the humility and the worship through pain, the privilege of suffering.

We look in Philippians that says that we have the privilege of trusting God, but we also have the privilege of suffering for Him. What does that even mean? Diving in the Word is always how we can take back that joy. That's always the first step, and never doubting the character of God, the true, unchanging, good, faithful character of God. I questioned that. And so, I think knowing the Word and knowing who He is, always brings you back to Joy.

Portia: Hmm, girl, you are talking my language. I think I'm like the resident joy bomb on Grounded. It's not pretentious. It is because of the very things that you're talking about, having your heart tethered to Scripture being anchored in the Word. 

And so, I'm thinking over the list of hard things that you've experienced in your life. And I know you're going to relate to what I say next. Sometimes, as a Christian, as a Christian woman, we feel pressure to put on the happy face or to be nice to everyone at all times, like I talked about earlier that, that level of pretentiousness. And so, how does that actually impact our joy, like true joy?

Nicole: Well, I think it's honestly a little prideful. I had to get to that place of realizing, I am not going to pretend that I'm okay. I'm also not going to pretend that I have it all together, because that brings other people down with you. That's not the whole point of our lives. We're supposed to proclaim the truth, proclaim the gospel, and bring others towards Him. 

And most of the time, we can relate with other women, when we are honest and authentic and saying, here's what I'm going through. I am having the hardest time. How can you pray for me? How can I pray for you? How can we go to the Word? And just being normal, being normal Bible-believing servants of the Lord, and being able to point and equip people to the truth? You can't do that being fake. You can't do that acting prideful, like we have it all together, and we for sure don't. 

But we serve the One who is going to redeem, and He's the only one who can restore and heal and mend those broken places. So, let's just gather women and go to the one who can actually do all these things in our brokenness. 

Portia: Amen.

Nicole: I just think there's such a balance between being like fake, but then being in just like, bringing everybody down with you and your complaint. You know what I mean? 

Portia: Yep, there's two sides of the same coin. I feel like nowadays there is so much forcefulness, almost like I know this trying to reconcile the truth of God's Word with what I know and what I should be. You know, living it out. I think you hit the nail on the head. Sometimes really what it is pride, we stifle God working in our lives because we want to push it out instead of just let God be God. 

So yeah, I'm tracking with you girl. I'm ready to like shout, okay. 

Well, I want to I want to ask one more question. And this is where we really like to really think about the women watching Grounded. I know that there is a woman listening who is just going through the motions. She is struggling; she's putting on a happy face. She is that oxymoron. She's a joyless, Christian, and I just want you to talk right through the camera to her. Tell her what does she most need to hear today,

Nicole: I always go back to Romans 8:18. And it says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.” When we have all of our eggs in the Lord's basket, we know that we are safe. We know that He loves us more than we love Him. And that is so beautiful. If we can just give Him that glory and give Him that praise, and know that He's going to produce in us beautiful things because of the pain. That is how good He is that we can stand on those promises. We can have this eternal perspective of what is to come. That is where I have to land, and that is what keeps me going.

Dannah: Amen. That was Portia Collins with Nicole Jacobsmeyer. What an example of a woman who is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Nicole isn’t willing to be fake. She’s not plastering on a smile and telling people everything’s great. Because rejoicing doesn’t have to replace sorrow; it can come right alongside it. Nicole accepted that sorrow would be part of her story, but she determined that joy would be, too. She set her eyes on the glory to come. She stood on the promises of God. That’s where her joy came from.

Maybe you’re listening today and you’re experiencing deep sorrow. Maybe you want to sing a hopeful song, but you don’t quite have the words. I’d love to point you to a resource by Pastor Paul Tautges called A Small Book for the Hurting Heart. It includes fifty brief readings to help you express your grief and give you the words to sing. This month, when you make a donation of any amount, we’d love to send you a copy. It’s our way of saying thank you. You can donate by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com. Be sure to request A Small Book for the Hurting Heart when you do.

Does our suffering have a purpose? Why does God allow it? We’ll continue on this theme next week on Revive Our Hearts Weekend. Specifically, I want us to take a closer look at the connection between the difficulties we face, and the purifying effect they can have in our lives. I hope you’ll join us for that.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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