“Heaviness.”  Not a pleasant sounding topic for today, is it?  But it’s a word found in 1 Peter 1:6.  In the New Testament it’s also translated “sorrow” and “grief.”  You can look at this week’s “Prayer Focus” list and see it.  Heart problems.  Back problems.  Unemployment.  Accidents.  Cancer.  Unsaved friends and family.  Bereavement.  More cancer.  And on and on it goes.  In other words, heaviness.  But there’s another word in that verse; and, at first glimpse, it doesn’t really make sense.  In the Greek it’s one word, but the translation is “greatly rejoice.”  Literally speaking, it’s “jump for joy.”  Now doesn’t that seem to be a huge contradiction?  Jumping for joy in heaviness?  However there’s another word in the verse that clears it all up.  It is the very simple word “Wherein.”  The rejoicing is not in the heaviness but in the “wherein” that points us to something else.  “Wherein what?” you ask.  Well, verse 5 tells us.  The “wherein” that enables the rejoicing is found in the phrase, “kept by the power of God.”  You see, in times of heaviness (and even not in heaviness), the omnipotent power of your loving Heavenly Fathers mounts a guard around you, hems you in, protects you, defends you, keeps you.  What a wonderful “wherein”!  So if life is heavy for you today, focus on that “wherein.”  There, you’ll find reason to rejoice; and maybe, just maybe, even to jump for joy!