drinking from a fountain of joy

Lewis tells us about how the blessed joy we'll experience when we meet Him will exceed our ability to comprehend, today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He says that the tastes of joy that we have now threaten to overwhelm us at times. People becoming addicted to sex and alcohol because they're powerful pleasures. But the pleasure that we'll experience in His presence will be the source from which all of these little pleasures come.

The reason why they won't overwhelm us is because we'll be bigger then. He will make us into the sort of people who can experience that much pleasure and not drown in it. That's part of what suffering does in this life... it deepens us. If you consider the people in your life who have suffered, and compare them to people who have had it easy all of their lives, you will probably notice that those who suffer are "deeper". And in a spiritual sense, they literally ARE deeper. They've been dug out by the suffering they've experienced, and they are now able to hold more joy inside of them.

So when you find yourself struggling under the suffering in your life, be encouraged by the fact that you are being made ready for a far greater joy than you can imagine.

God, thank You for allowing suffering to make us deeper... so we can experience more of You.