You've been through it, the betrayal, the loss, the decision you'd give anything to undo.

And yet somehow, even years later, the memory still stings.

But what if God never intended for you to stay in that place of pain? What if the

very thing that broke you was meant to lead you to something worth celebrating? Today, on Insight

for Living, Chuck Swindall describes how God specializes in turning the worst chapter of our

lives into the most meaningful ones. From his study of Esther, Chuck

titled today's message, After the Ake, Celebrate.

Most Christians seem to handle pain better than pleasure.

For some twisted and strange reason, we seem to do better with hard days than with easy

days, with tough times, rather than times of relief and celebration and leisure.

I'm sure our critics would tell us that it is because of our consuming

guilt. We simply cannot seem to reward ourselves for good times. Hard days and tough times we seem to

handle well. Stress and anxiety, we not only experience, we tend to excuse. Times of reward, times

of relief. If we're honest with ourselves, we tend to keep those times to ourselves.

Because even though we may be among the few who can handle them, many of our friends cannot.

We tend to weep with those who weep much more easily than rejoice with those who rejoice,

don't we?

Most folks I know who take a two-week vacation tell me that it takes about a week to begin to enjoy it.

Often because we're so wound up, we don't relax,

and sometimes it's because we have to take that long a time

to give ourselves permission,

to enjoy the rewards of a long year of work, well done.

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