Rita Pfaff

If happiness is your highest aim in life, you will find nothing but emptiness. God rarely uses happiness to draw near, for he knows that when we are happy we rarely seek God out. Questions do not begin to be asked until we have experienced pain, a man does not say “Where is God?” when he is happy. It is when he has been knocked down that he begins to ask these questions. Love blooms in the season of sorrow, as odd as it may sound, it is in the work and toil that we begin the task of laying down the crops. It is in the struggles of life that we see the face of God; For when we have had everything ripped away from us, we will see, like the dawn of a new day, that the cross was born out of sorrow. Happiness is wonderful, it fills us up and makes us content, but what are we content in? Do we ever cling to the cross in our self-happiness? Do we look to Jesus and truly see the man who was described as being a man of many sorrows? (Isaiah 53:3) Happiness is comforting, but sorrow brings an invitation that nothing else can ever offer. We must find God through the heartbreak, through the questions that come, and through the seasons of hardship. For we grow close with those we suffer with, and we have a God who suffers with us. Just look at Jesus, He carried it all so that we would know that when it is our time to also carry the cross, that we have Him to lean on and to find shelter in. Do not seek happiness above all else, seek Jesus.

We serve a God who shows up for us.

Always and Always