Many of us handle hard times better than good ones.

We're almost more comfortable with struggle than with rest, with mourning rather than joy.

Strange, isn't it?

But Chuck Swindall says there's a reason for that,

and a remedy. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck shows us why God doesn't just want to heal

your pain. He wants to transform it into something you'll carry forward with gratitude.

Teaching from Esther Chapter 9, Chuck titled his message, After the Ake, Celebrate.

But I read verses 17, 18, and 19.

I read about a people who decided, let's name this day a day for a holiday.

Let's call it Purim.

All this annihilation of the enemy was done on the 13th day of the month, Adar, and on the 14th day, they rested, of course.

They made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. How appropriate. The Jews who were in Susa assembled on the 13th and the 14th day

of the same month, they rested on the 15th day. Took them a little longer to kill their enemies.

And they made it the day of feasting and rejoicing. How appropriate. How good. Therefore, the

Jews of the rural areas who live in the rural towns make the 14th day of the month, I'd are,

a holiday for rejoicing and feasting and sending portions of food to one another. It reminds me

of the spontaneous celebration that occurred shortly after Jamestown and Plymouth.

But after enduring the bitterness of winter, the early forefathers of our great country decided

to kill a few wild turkeys and in primitive kind of ovens to bake fine cakes and pies, and to pull from the land

some of the produce and from the sea some of the fish, and have a feast, to celebrate a giving

of thanks to God for surviving the awful winters of the past.

It wasn't official until the governor of Massachusetts made it official in their New England.

...