Education in Serious Joy

And when all is said and done, it's only God who can create in us joy in God

The world is not short of hurts; pain and suffering will always remain to be a part of life. So, while there's certainly some good in life, there's a lot of bad as well. Joy comes when we are willing enough to take the good with the bad. Yet to me, it now seems as though it actually is our suffering and pain, and the inconveniences we bear, that really end up giving color to our victory. For a moment, I have imagined what life would have been like had people always had what they wanted, at the time they wanted it. Would there have been value in something that literally anyone would wish into existence because of a mere caprice? If anything, it's getting clear that it is scarcity that assigns value to the items in our lives, whatever they are. When it is success that we have, all the time, everyday, we become complacent, even a little arrogant, and we stop appreciating what it means to succeed.

Pain and suffering are the crucibles that have made us into the people that we are. The challenges we encounter play quite a significant role in shaping who we are at any point in time, and who we end up becoming. Sometimes it is our scars, hurts, disappointments and failures that define who we are. We could still have been good people if we hadn't gone through such dark times, but we are great precisely because we did. Those moments birthed our excellent selves. Those difficult moments didn't kill us, they proved us.

Sometimes I have asked myself why and if I even need to stand my ground, especially in moments when all seems lost; when I feel I am done. But later I have realized I had been a little tunnel-visioned. Life needs us to take a step back, to zoom out a little bit, and appreciate all the circumstances we have been in over the course of our lives. We need to insist on seeing the bigger picture, despite how clouded our eyes are by tears, only then we'll we notice, like it's been said, that that moment isn't really our lives; it's just a moment in our lives. That that too will pass. It's Steve Jobs who said, 'you cannot connect the dots moving forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.' Sometimes it's just a field of lentils, but if like Shammah we stand our ground and defend it against the Philistines, the Lord could work a great victory through us. Do we want to be named as those who shrank back, or those who stood their ground, even if it meant facing death? We have not yet seen the worst, and when that time comes, what will it be said of us?

Many people are excellent when things are going well, not quite so when things seem not to work; they fall apart. Trouble may come at us, to kill us, but it doesn't have to, not if we let it; we can decide to allow it prove us instead. The sea proves a sailor; he may be a man of great words, but the sea will be the judge of it. For all our virtuous thoughts on resilience and capacity to handle inconveniences, it is actually how we act in the moments of truth that our virtue is proven. That, at least in part, could be why Christianity is losing its hold. Many Christians are talkers; they speak highly of virtue, of faith, of joy, of patience and of forbearance, but when trouble comes they scatter. It is Peter claiming he would die for Christ, but denies Him when confronted by a damsel. Virtue is more than who we are, it is what we do in the moments of truth. Important as it is to tell people we love them, we have to show them that we do, prove it as it were, and the greatest love, Jesus said, is when a man lays down his life for a friend. What's wrong with our marriages and relationships? Men really love their wives, and are willing to lay their lives for them, but they just cannot bring themselves to help with the dishes. I wonder what's actually easier.

Joy is an important tenet in the Christian faith because pain and suffering is part of the Christian faith.

Sometimes it's a little difficult to understand why we have to go through so much pain and suffering. In such moments of hurt and desperation, we need to cling to joy. We are called to endure pain and suffering as good soldiers of Christ; it's only joy that can make that possible. I haven't suffered enough to qualify to speak confidently on the matter of endurance, but I have had my share of hurts. I doubt if I could lament with Jeremiah, 'I am a man who has been afflicted by God!' I have noticed that when it comes to the matter of afflictions, you only need to hear someone recount their woes, and it will suddenly occur to you how trivial your own pain has been. Does hunger matter to a man at the vanguard of a bloody battle? I think not. While some people are losing their lives in battles, I wonder why I have had break-downs because of the the inconvenience of a rejection. It's not that a heartbreak is or should be less painful, but that I have been unwilling to see the bigger picture. We need the discomfort of a failed relationship to appreciate what it means to truly love another person, and be loved by them. I have seen students become resentful because of an uncooperative patient. What we experience when this patient refuses to give us their history is an inconvenience, they on the other hand are in pain, and pinned down by a much greater inconvenience. What right do we have to get mad? Maybe we should exchange places and see if won't have any qualms giving our own histories.

It's joy that makes us endure pain and suffering. Not happiness. Happiness is mostly a response to a turn of good fortune or joke. Joy unlike happiness, is constant despite the circumstances. Happiness is mostly spontaneous and fleeting; joy is permanent and enduring. Joy doesn't rest on convenience, providence or ease. Joy looks to God as a source of hope, delight and gladness. Happiness demands that things should be alright, joy doesn't mind inconvenience.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is not love, happiness, and peace; rather, it is love, joy, and peace. The kingdom of God seems a little pro-feasting, or there would have been no mention of the Lamb's Supper. Yet Paul puts it out clearly: the kingdom of God isn't a matter of eating and drinking, but of peace and righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is with joy that we draw from the wells of salvation. John Piper says of God that he not only wants to be obeyed, but also to be delighted in; God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Delight is proof that we are satisfied. We know of a king who served God, yet without an upright heart. He simply did not take a delight in serving or obeying God, and God was not pleased. God doesn't just see faces, he has made the whole brood of Adam's children and knows their hearts. Before Cain mentioned it, God confronted him for his bitterness and warned him of the sin lurking at his door.

Joy is not a thing of the face but of the heart; it's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. When all is said and done, John Piper reminds us in his book How To Fight for Joy, only God can create in us the delight for God. Joy is something that only the Lord can supply. And like the man who cried out to Jesus to be helped out of unbelief, we need to plead to be led into joy. It is joy that gives salvation its meaning, it is joy that causes us to endure privation.

'A man should find enjoyment in his toil,' says the Preacher. Joy means to take delight in something. We are exhorted to take delight, to find pleasure, in our toil. Joy. Enjoy. To have joy in, that is to enjoy. And of the wife of our youth, Solomon instructs: take delight in her always; enjoy her always; always be infatuated with her love. What is it that made you like her? It's still in there, somewhere; you just need to see it, and be the man to bring it out. We are the ones to bring out those aspects of character in people that we enjoy and take delight in. Yet, once we grow familiar, we are unwilling to do so; to bring out virtues we delight in. So I take it that by infatuation Solomon means that we should fall in love with our wives all over again. Maybe it's only the husband who needs to love his wife enough, as Christ loved the Church. The lady only responds to that love as it were; she respects and submits to her husband because of his love. So men, enjoy your wives; young men enjoy your girlfriends. What did you love in her when you chose her? Look for it, because it's in there somewhere, unless it never was.

Moreover, I feel joy has something to do with hope. It is hope that gives joy. If only in this world we have hope, we are of all men most wretched. We have joy when we put our hope in the right place. God can be trusted. Jeremiah after lamenting of God's affliction he quickly goes on to say: I call to mind your steadfast love, and I have hope. He has joy as it were. Maybe he's not exactly happy, but he's joyful. In God's presence there's fullness of joy, and pleasures forever more. If there's a dearth of joy in our lives, there could be something wrong with God's presence in our lives. And joy comes from love as well. You can only delight in what you love, and we can only enjoy God if we love him. We can only enjoy people's company because we love them. I had to meet a friend and apologize for having been insensitive in how I had until then, been acting towards her. Afraid as I was to do so, in the end I felt so refreshed, so freed, and I doubt if I've ever enjoyed any lady's company as I did her. That's what happens when we act from love, when we care for other's well being. So in the end, it is only love that can work joy into a man's heart. Rejoicing with one another, as we are exhorted in Romans 12, is possible only because we have first loved one another.

Many people are in the business of acquiring wealth. Politics is what people get into when they want to make money. Get rich as quickly as you can, as soon as you have the opportunity; that seems to be the unspoken rule of our age and time. However, the scriptures aren't short of warnings when it comes to the subject of riches and wealth. In one place: Riches make for themselves wings, and fly. In another: I have seen an evil under the Sun, a man gets himself rich, but does not have the power to enjoy it. Among the rich, there's meat on the table, but no delight in the house. Jesus instructs us not to store our riches on earth where rust and moth can destroy, and where thieves can break in and steal. We should, instead, store them in heaven. Men think that wealth will give them joy, and so they set out to get a lot of it, careful to eliminate every bit of inconvenience from their lives. 'I have to be rich!' they seem to say. They have never been so hurt. Joy is not found in material things. Joy is found in God. Joy is found when we love and when we are kind to one another. Joy is a product of love, and our love for God is proved by our obedience. He who loves me keeps my commandments. It is right to say Abraham had joy in God, at least in the end. Sacrificing his son was an act of obedience, but even greater it was a show of love. It was a man proving that he loved God. He could have told God he loved him, but God wanted to see it, and so he asked for Abraham's only son. And when God wanted to prove his love for us, he gave a son. We are the only people who say we love but are unwilling to give up anything for it. We love God, but let him not touch our shilling, or the lady we are in love with. Oh Brenda!

Tozer has claimed that it is as though God only blesses a man He has hurt deeply. He seems to always be snatching what it is we have, and love. But the secret of joy is in hoping, and waiting, for what he gives in return. It is bigger. It is better. When we hold on to lesser blessings, we miss on the bigger and better ones. Unwilling to give over our pennies, neither do we get the pounds. Abraham might have held on to a son, and lost nations. We are all children of Abraham, because he was willing enough to let go of a son. This momentary affliction, cannot be compared to the weight of glory that is to be later revealed. We need to see the treasure that is in the land, then go and sell everything else and buy that land. Burn the yoke, boil the oxen, and follow the prophet. If you have to, hate mother and father. And for what? For a man who has nowhere to lay his head? Of course we know better! For the King who sits by God's right-hand side, until his enemies are made his footstool. There are many things that place us in the danger of not seeing what truly matters. God help us! And keep from our sights any worthless thing.

Joy also comes from an assurance of victory and peace. We are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us, and gave His life for us. Blessed be The God of our Lord Jesus Christ who has made us victors. It's this assured victory and peace that makes it possible to rejoice and be thankful in all circumstances. Joy comes from the consciousness that Christ has already overcome. In this world we will have tribulation, but we can be of good cheer. Why would we? Because Christ has won. Don't you know that the battle has been won already? The Lord Jesus will slay the enemy by the breath of his mouth, and bring him to nothing by the appearance of his coming. Oh death where is your sting! Though I die, will I not rise again? So it doesn't end with death; it never has. Jesus told us to fear he who could not only kill, but also cast the soul into hell. Oh Abraham! Secretly he knew death couldn't be the end. Though he might kill his son, he was assured in his heart that God could still raise him up. Today, you'll hear a Christian pray: I will not die! Oh child of God, death's not the worst. Death's just an entry point into something far greater. Paul says my greater desire is to go and be with the Lord. Paul wanted to die, otherwise he would not have cried that he be clothed with glory. He says: as long as I am in this body I am absent from the Lord. He wanted to leave and go be with his God.

If only we knew we that we don't have to hold on to our lives, because the only way to have our lives is to give it up, joyfully. When the grain of wheat does not die, it remains alone. True Christians are willing to die, if that will spread the Gospel. While we live, we remain alone, but when we die... It is that joy that made Stephen behold heaven while he was being stoned to death. For the joy that was set before him Jesus endured the cross. For the joy! What will our joy make us do? What will our joy allow us endure? What will our joy make us give up? Paul says that had the rulers of the world known, they would not have crucified the king of glory. They thought by killing him they would end his story; no! it was just beginning. Hell has never had it rough! If we can learn anything from politics and history, it is that revolutions are not done away with by killing men. If the revolution's real, it's a hydra; cut off one head, you have seven more. You can kill the man but you cannot kill the revolution. That's what makes men face live bullets as they march to Statehouse. It's what makes men storm into parliament. Your comrade being shot doesn't make you cower and hide, rather, it only makes you stand up and fight, more courageously. The servants that we are, are we greater than our master who was persecuted and killed? If we are truly Christ's, they should want to kill us to. What's up with the coexisting today? While at the pyre, the Christian rejoices, for in a while he knows he will be with his God, delivered from his vile body, from a cursed world. It is only joy that can make a man boast in nothing else aside his cross.

Joy comes when we know that our purpose is being fulfilled; by dying Jesus knew that he would resurrect and bring many sons to glory. That's why we need to live for God, so that when it is time to die, we can die with a smile on our face and joy in our hearts. Because that way we know our death is not for nothing. Those who are afraid to die don't know where they are going, because they don't know that they are going to a much better place. They, probably, have not lived their lives fully, to be willing to die gladly, it is not that there's no pain in death, but joy can make us endure that pain if we know that our death serves a greater glory. Let men stand up and live, with purpose, and with intention, because soon enough they must lie down and die. And we do not know how soon the Lord will require our souls; get busy living for God, so that you will be ready to die for him as well.

In conclusion, remember joy isn't something we can simply find within. It is not something to just be fished out when occasion demands it. It is understandable to be sad. I agree with Thoreau when he says that there's nothing that can compel a sane man to vulgar sadness. However, our lack of joy and delight might possibly be a reflection of a problem of love, a problem of obedience, or a problem of hope. Why was Cain sad? Because he hadn't done right. Vulgar sadness, that's of the devil. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and it's source is God. There is nothing in us that can make us joyful. There's nothing in us to make us desirable, oh wretched men that we are! In our bodies, there dwells no good thing. Our joy can only be found in God. We shouldn't be like Mary and her lady friends who went to look for a living man among the dead. Joy is not to be found in the darkness of our hearts, or in the things of this world. Joy will not be found in riches, nor in women, and certainly not in drugs. Joy is only found in God. Please do not deny yourself this joy that lasts.

And when you come to God, it's not as if your pain or suffering will vanish, in fact, you may suffer a lot more, but your suffering will mean something, and you will have joy because you would be conscious that you are living for something greater than yourself, an imperishable and unfading inheritance preserved in heaven for you. So I say, rejoice! Again I say...