Buried Treasure

The tears well up when he thinks of what he has lost. How could he be so silly, so stupid, so not able to notice what he was about to lose? The despair is overwhelming and it almost sinks his boat at times.

The relationship is over and he can do nothing about it.

The young teen’s first love is gone. Ouch!

I watched a movie the other night and was shocked again to feel the pain of the characters being portrayed…it was my teen years all over again. My memories of the loss of a girl friend was still there. I was embarrassed as I thought of those old days, my reactions, and the way it was handled.

If I would have stopped living in those teen years – just think of what I would have missed. A wonderful wife, great kids and now wonderful grandkids – would have never happened.

The tragedy is that many people will not wish to go on after a broken relationship. After the horrible loss that some face – it seems as if they cannot face another day. Some I know are in that place now.

That place is known as “despair”. If you could build a physical model of the “despair” I imagine it would not be a pleasant place to be. It would not be a white sandy beach – but rather a cluttered junk yard with dozens of old vehicles in different modes of wreckage.

A statement I ran across says, “Joy runs deeper than despair.” Corrie Ten Boom said this.

Corrie lived through the Second World War in Holland. The story is well worth reading again. As the war came to her country of Holland she witnessed the firsthand atrocities of the cruel German army – and especially of the leadership as they were bent on wiping out the Jewish people. Corrie and her family hid Jews in their home and then assisted them to leave the country. She certainly witnessed first hand what “despair” was.

When the statement came my way “Joy runs deeper than despair” I have had to reconsider my own feelings. I have known despair and there has been times that it has nearly killed me. I have personally felt the immediacy of despair as well. When it takes over – there is little that be felt around it. You go numb with fear and hopelessness.

But Corrie is right. After the despair slowly moved on like a thick Fog… new life appeared. The pain of the despair moved away and the world was brighter.

What I remember was the fact that Joy bubbled through my life again like a small refreshing brook running through my personal property.

Not long ago I needed a part for our old van. The best place to get old parts for an old van is in an old car wrecking yard. The place is not far from the edge of our city. I went to the salvage yard out back of the office. Getting there you needed to walk over a small brook that runs through the yard. It babbled and danced its way across the wrecking yard. On each side was the evidence of death with the vehicles piled on each like dead carcasses. But the brook was alive. It was happy and alive.

At times our situations are a little like this wrecking yard – not a nice place to be or live. Yet through it runs a brook of Joy…bubbling, skipping, dancing, gurgling, sparkling and alive through our lives.

Last night as I shovelled the driveway I was dwelling on some heavy stuff from the daytime. It had made my brow furloughed and I felt a head ache coming on. As I pushed the snow to the side with the shovel the snow flakes danced about like tiny people. Each snow flake seemed happy. The millions of flakes rushed in all directions. I smiled at the sight. There was that joy just under the surface. It was still running even though the heavy stuff had tried to deposit the despair.

“Joy runs deeper than despair.”

You were so right Corrie.

Question – in the middle of your muddle… can you hear Joy bubbling, skipping, dancing, gurgling, sparkling and alive through our life?

I believe that God wants you to know a new freedom today. Maybe it will be a beautiful snow flake or some dancing sun beams… or maybe a kind word… or just a hug from some one that cares… God is about to do something in you life, that even if he told you what it was, you likely wouldn’t believe it. Watch out… Joy is coming.

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~