The same bible that tells us to "rejoice always" has a book called Lamentations. We don’t have to choose one from the other.
Good, healthy Christian faith is non-dualistic, able to hold multiple tensions together.
I've mentioned this, but it bears repeating. A friend told me if your work is primarily physical in nature, you should relax with mostly mental activities. If your work is mostly mental, you should relax with activities that are primarily physical. It's been a game changer for me
You can do right and still have everything turn out wrong. I am not certain where we got the idea that was not so, given that the one we follow and call God did do everything right and ended up treated with gross injustice.
Years ago, Corrie Ten Boom came to hear Chuck Swindoll preach.
After the service, she approached him, took his hands, and opened them gently.
She looked in his eyes and said, "Hold everything in your hands like this, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."
We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
— Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007)
You need to hear in the center of your being the voice of the Father saying, “despite of everything you’ve done, and because of Christ's work on your behalf--I love you."
I think about this a lot. Much of our prayers are requests to walk by sight (tell me what to do) versus by faith (help me be like Christ no matter the circumstance). Faith gives certainty of relationship with God, not of next steps or outcomes. “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”