[.30Carbine]

Along the same lines as what Tozer has written above, John Piper quotes wisdom words (in Olde English spelling) from the poem "Bitter-sweet" of George Herbert (d.1633) in his booklet, When the Darkness Will Not Lift that helps to set before our eyes and more firmly in our understanding this seeming conundrum of the reality equation

Happiness = Lack of Happiness < True Joy

To put it another way, happiness or the lack of happiness are equally less than Joy...and the Joy of the Lord is my Strength (Nehemiah 8:10b).

Ah my deare angrie Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.
I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve:
And all my sowre-sweet dayes
I will lament, and love.

I personally think Joy is obtainable only in the embracing fully of Sorrow, and that perhaps is why mere happiness knows neither. Happiness is afterall based upon happenstance while Joy is a Thing Eternal. Amen.

[JockoManning]

Thank you for pinging me to this. I love A.W. Tozer.

jm

[JockoManning]

It must take a ton of maturity to even begin to grasp this.

One item in Scripture that helps me is that worldly sorrow produces death and godly sorrow produces repentance.

thanks again,
jm