the fine line: ignorance and fake joy

Just a brief thought for the day; but I am being struck lately at just how much pain there is in life. Last week I was telling my family how entering into the counseling profession has brought me face to face with just how icky life can be for people at times. And for some people, it's not just isolated times that are few and far between. Some people live life at a level far below what you and I even conceive. Yes, there is joy there, too. There is accomplishment and success and pleasure and contentment. But you can't escape the pain. And it is not just within the counseling profession that you encounter this. People I care about are struggling to make ends meet financially. A good friend of mine recently lost a loved one. Another friend recently found out that she had a miscarriage and lost her baby. Both devastating situations. There are hard things in my life, too.

So I propose questions rather than answers (how like a graduate student, right?). How do you remain aware of the reality of the world's brokenness, without sinking into depression? One might answer that we should focus on the good. And I agree! But how do you do that without resorting to living life behind a mask of fake joy? How do you live authentically, acknowledging both the joys and devastations in the world and in your life?

rejoicing amidst decay?

I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

to come on the nation invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails,

and the field produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The sovereign LORD is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to go on the heights.

Habakkuk 3:16-19