August 25, 2015 I was sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for our flight to Africa. We were entering into month 3 of our Race. August 25, 2010 I was sitting in a hospital room spending the last few minutes with my dad. I was entering into my senior year of high school. It’s been 5 years and I still remember that day so vividly; in fact I doubt I’ll ever forget it. But on August 25, 2015, I felt something else. Joy.
I’ve always been really intrigued by the distinction between “joy” and “happiness.” While in Romania I decided that I really wanted to adequately define joy. Did you know that joy is mentioned over 150 times in the Bible? Obviously if a word is that prominent it has to mean something really significant.
Reading through the Old Testament I learned a lot about the different festivals that were celebrated in Jewish tradition. Many of these festivals, like the Festival of the Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:39) and the Festival of Purim (Esther 9:20-22) are significant because they are celebrations of deliverance from trials and suffering. These celebrations would include great feasts and much singing, but it was also important to remember the reason for celebrating.
“Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.” (Esther 9:20-22, NIV)
Other contexts in which the word “joy” is used refer to God. David calls on the Lord many times throughout the book of Psalms, claiming him as his “joy” and singing songs and praises of “joy” to him for all he has done.
Here are three ways to be joyful:
1. Know WHO your God is
2. Know WHAT your God did
3. Know WHY He did it
God is joy. God is YOUR joy. And even better than that, YOU are God’s greatest and deepest joy. He loves you so much that he was willing to put his only son through much suffering just to be able to spend time with you. It wasn’t easy; it was painful and difficult and full of sorrow. But he did it because he wanted to REDEEM us. We are his most valued creation, and he has so much joy in knowing that we are once again whole and pure and close to our Father.
Joy is not dependent on circumstance. It is not fleeting, it is everlasting. It is not of human emotion, but is a gift from God. Joy cannot exist without pain, or sorrow, or trials and suffering. Because the importance of joy is that there is something to be redeemed, restored and made new. God redeemed us from sin, and that brings us joy. We were once dead and separated from God by our own human flesh, but through the blood of Christ we are reconciled to him. We are rescued. We are revived! My August 25 has been redeemed for the Lord. My teammate Shannan could tell that I was hurting in that airport on that day. I explained to her that that day represented a day of death, a day that I lost a loved one, a day of pain and sorrow and grief. “How cool is it, then, that on this day, a day marked with DEATH, that you are leaving for Africa? You’re bringing LIFE to the people of this country.”
Joy requires a complete transformation. It’s not always easy, but it’s worthwhile. And it gives us something else; HOPE. Have confidence in the simplicity of your salvation, that it is a GIFT given freely to you, and you will have joy EVERLASTING.
“Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:20-22, NIV)
