But Jesus said, in effect, “Don’t rejoice in successful service—the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me” (Luke 10:17-20)
It’s month 11 and things are starting to get real. So here’s a post about what the Lord’s been teaching and showing me.
“Everyone wants to be happy; we make chasing this elusive ideal a lifelong pursuit: spending money, collecting things, and searching for new experiences. But if happiness depends on our circumstances, what happens when the toys rust, loved ones die, health deteriorates, money is stolen, and the party’s over?”
Happiness and joy. Joy and happiness. Externally they seem to be interchangeable. What makes you happy would also make you joyful, right? Traveling for so long you start to ask your self that very question. I soon realized that happiness is only temporal. If I was hungry I was “hangry,” (hungry and angry) not happy. If I slept through the night without being woken up by barking dogs or traffic, I was very happy. If it was a sunny day not rainy, I was happy. All of these things pertaining to my “happiness” depend upon circumstances happening where joy occurs through wellbeing. If we’re not careful though we can place our joy into the things of this world.
In the book “A Severe Mercy,” by Sheldon Vanauken, he talks about as human, we long for joy. We set our sights on something of this world that we believe if we achieve, or obtain, will bring us that joy we long for. Once we obtain it we find that it doesn’t ever contain the “joy that broke our heart with wonder,” to begin with. And in that realize what we long for nothing in this world can actually give us.
How many times have I heard people saying, “I’ll be happy when…”
When what?
When you have money? You’ll just want more money.
When you get a job? You’ll just count down the days till Friday!
When you are in a relationship?
When you get a six-pack?
Lose 10 pounds?
Go on vacation?
“What makes it difficult for us to see the truth about God, I think, isn’t his overwhelming immensity but out overwhelming self-centeredness. Looking past ourselves is a lot harder to do than most of us realize.” (Dug Down Deep, Joshua Harris)
We so easily entrust our joy in the things of this world. And then when that thing lets us down by not living up to our expectation we look for our next fix. What will bring ME happiness or joy.
C.S. Lewis became a Christian “by his longing for joy, a joy that does not reside in any earthly object that seems to promise it.” “But then we fix that sweet poignant longing for joy upon some earthly object…and yet, whatever the object of our quest, we learn when we find it that it does not ever contain the joy that broke our heart with longing.” (A Severe Mercy)
Happiness depends on happenings but joy depends on Christ.
Joy is contrast to happiness. “Running deeper and stronger, joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God’s love and work in our lives—that he will be there no matter what!”
Did you know that the book of Philippians is Paul’s “joy letter”? He writes about the concept of rejoicing or joy 16 times in just four chapters. Throughout Pauls life he faced poverty, wealth, and everything in between. He was never in need, for he learned how to be content with whatever he had (Phil 4:11-12).
I sat across from a woman last month in Rwanda who survived the genocide when she was just 6 years old. She recalls fleeing from her home with her family driving past dead bodies in the streets and witnessing brutal killings. Death becomes a reality, something you wake up with every day believing will happen, she recalls. 22 years later she sits across from me with joy in her eyes and in her smile, she knows Christ, and has a relationship with him. She recounts these memories with pain and gratitude for how God protected her and her family and led them all to safety, where so many were not as lucky.
Do I still wake up every morning not happy until I have my morning cup of coffee or eat something? Some days, I’m not perfect. It’s easy to wake up thinking of everything you don’t have that you want than what Christ’s done for you already. I might not always be happy but I can always remain in a state of joy thanks to the Holy Spirit. I am healthy, I am loved, I am a child of God, I am gifted, I have a bed this month and hot showers, God is with me and within me and I never have to worry for the future because God is preparing a way. My joy is rooted in the cross and what Christ died for, nothing of this world can take that joy from me, or from you.
“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus…” (Acts 20:24). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life. – Oswald Chambers
