Feb 13, 2007
Life is short. Happiness consists not in outward circumstances. Millions of Burmans are perishing. I am almost the only person on earth who has attained their language to such a degree as to be able to communicate the way of salvation. How great are my obligations to spend and be spent for Christ!
Adoniram Judson Pioneer Missionary to Burma. Letter from Adoniram to his wife Ann while she recovered her health in the States, 1822.
(HT - Jonathan Phipps)
Comments
Great quote-- I love it!
Only one comment, surely pertaining to semantics, but a pet peeve none-the-less.
I wish he would've used "joy" instead of "happiness."
Happiness is from the same root word as happenstance, a synonym of circumstance. So circumstances are inherently connected with happiness.
Joy, as we know it relating to God's agape love, isn't effected by circumstances. It's an internal assurance that isn't always apparent on the outside.
We all have known people who show temporary happiness, but are lost on the inside. But many of us have experienced joy in the midst of suffering.
You're sitting at a funeral for a loved one, weeping and mourning on the outside. Yet at the same time, on the inside, we feel an unexplainable assuredness and comfort because we know this person is with Jesus for eternity and we'll see them again some day.
We're certainly not happy in that circumstance. :-)
Posted by: Mike Radcliffe | February 13, 2007 06:10 PM