Today is Monday, March 31st, 2008; Karen's Korner #1281
It is always fun when some Karen's Korner reader responds to one of the daily thoughts.
Last week Wilma Gamblin, who pastored with her husband for a number of years at the Nazarene Church in Clarion, emailed a response from the Barbara Johnson sayings I sent in a Karen's Korner last week. The one that caught Wilma's eye was "Joy is not the absence of suffering, but the presence of God."
"Just wanted to share a little chorus the Lord gave me the summer of 1990, right after finding out my mother had breast cancer," she wrote. "I had just returned home. For the first time in my life, I realized I would not always have my parents and grieved that day for the loss that was coming. I sat down to the piano. Looked up and read a similar saying, which was attached to a bell that someone had given to me a few years before."
Here are the words, minus the music:
JOY is not the absence of suffering,
but JOY is the presence of the LORD.
And the JOY of the LORD is my strength.
Yes, the JOY of the LORD is my strength.
Jesus, fill me with JOY, fill me with JOY,
JOY, REAL JOY!!!
"It was a great blessing to me and has been as Lee (husband) and I have sung it many times since then," Wilma continued. "My Dad went to be with the Lord on March 6, 1998 and my Mother a year and one week later on March 13, 1999. They loved the springtime and it was so fitting they both went HOME at that time to be forever with the Lord. God is so good! I am so glad Jesus came and that HE sent the COMFORTER, too! He cares, He comforts! Blessed be the name of the LORD!"
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