Choose Joy
We celebrated our family Christmas a couple of days late so all nineteen of us could be together. Nineteen includes our kids, in-law kids and grandkids. Our time was rich in every way; relationships, food, fun, hiking, Bible reading, prayer and expressions of love. My heart is full. My heart is bursting with joy.
It’s easy to be filled with joy when all of life is going just the way we want. When we’re healthy. When family members are getting along. When kindness and love abound.
What about when all of life stinks?
I have friends and relatives that are going through seemingly unbearable hardships. One is painfully waiting for surgery on his broken neck after falling down stairs. Another is struggling to care for three disabled kids; one child in chronic pain. Others are experiencing the pain of drug addicted children, chronic mental illness, abuse, death of loved ones, loss of jobs and homes, an unfaithful spouse, frightening diagnoses, caring for parents with dementia. On and on the list goes.
And I wonder…
I wonder, under the worst of circumstances, would I be able to choose joy?
In asking that question. I have to also ask, what exactly is joy? And is it a choice?
Dictionary definition: Joy is “the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying: keen pleasure; elation”.
The Bible certainly implies joy is a choice because we are told to be joyful and to rejoice over and over and over again. Might I dare say we are commanded to be joyful?
When it seems that the absolute worst is happening, is it crazy to expect to be able to be joyful? If everything precious to me was stripped away, how would I respond? I’ve thought about this a lot lately because of watching the suffering of others. My conclusion is that I wouldn’t do well. Not well at all, I’m afraid.
Joy is not a Pollyanna approach to life where we walk around in cheerful denial of the facts. I believe we Christians can boldly look the facts square in the face because we have nothing to fear. If the definition of joy is indeed an “emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good” then we need to remind ourselves often of the facts that are exceptionally good. We need to know the truth about God and the truth about ourselves, if we’ve accepted what He’s so freely given us through Christ.
Perspective is everything. God is very present and is continually at work. The most precious thing to me can never be stripped away because in the center of everything is God. He is my Father forever and He will never let me go.
I’ve come to the realization that the very core of joy is found in an intimate relationship with God, the Creator of all. I am able to walk boldly into His Presence because of Jesus’ sacrifice for me (and you) on the cross. When everything else in life is stripped away, we will find that that relationship is infinitely more valuable than anything else that we hold dear.
The knowledge that I am His, that I am forgiven and that He never leaves me fills me with incredible joy. When I can’t feel joy, I can still respond to the Truth by choosing to rejoice and give thanks. An underlying sense of goodness and love and indescribable peace will follow my obedience. When my mind is not consumed by my stinky, temporary circumstances but is dwelling on Him and the amazing, eternal gifts He’s given me, then it’s not at all hard to choose joy.
You may be making resolutions for this coming new year. Determine that “choosing joy” will be one of those changes you make. Whenever God commands us to do something, He empowers us to obey. If choosing to be full of joy is difficult for you, simply ask for help. Again and again and again. Will your life look different if you make this choice from now on, day by day; moment by moment?
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16
“May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:11-14)
