Life clearly comes packing pain, disappointments and setbacks. Nobody needs to tell you that. And while we may know we “should” be joyful, we face the very real obstacles of daily life. And some of them can be enormously overwhelming. But what if we don’t have to wait for Heaven to experience real joy?

The Apostle Paul tells us that we don’t merely have a “hope of future joys.” He tells us that we can experience joy—actually be FULL of joy in the here and now, even in the midst of our trials and troubles. And he gives us a sequence that solidifies that joy. He tells us that our challenges produce something solid: endurance. And that endurance in turn leads to a maturing of our character. That’s good news. But it doesn’t stop there. The character produced through our endurance leads to a steady hope that will never disappoint us.

The truth is that rich joy actually SPRINGS from discomfort, if we will view them in the right spirit. See it almost like a really hard workout. Challenging? Yes. Sweat and tears? Sometimes, yes. But the ultimate result is a shaping endurance and character that produces a life-giving result. Hope is on the other side. It’s why you and I can actually dare to rejoice on the front end, because we are being launched into a process that will not disappoint.