The Joy of the Lord?

As I have been deepening my personal understanding of joy, I stumbled upon something I wanted to explore: the joy of the Lord. What is that? What does Christian joy look like? Didn’t Jesus once say that life would continue to suck, if not suck more? How are we supposed to be joyful when life around us doesn’t magically fall into place? What good thing is it that we have that keeps us going? All these and more I would like to explore today. 

To start, I think we should look at how we tend to see things. We look at the situation our lives are in and that tells us whether or not we should be happy or sad. When asked how we are doing, it is always because of something going on in our lives. We might say “I just paid off the car, so I’m feeling great!” Or we will be sad because our vacation just got canceled. Even when we try to turn ourselves around, we try to come up with other reasons to be happy instead of sad. Whether or not this is a good way of doing things, it’s the way we make sense of things as people. So, the question becomes: what do we do with this information and how do we become more joyful?Though I can’t remember who originally taught me this, I was reminded yesterday of an idea that comes from the fruits of the spirit. As I was sitting in church (where most of my best thoughts come from,) I remembered that someone once told me that the order of the fruits is important. In case you aren’t familiar, the fruits are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I was told that one leads to the next which leads to the next and so on. What I am trying to say is that joy stems from a love that we are able to share with others. Not our own love, but God’s love. So let’s take a step back and look at love for a split second. 

Ah, many studies and sermons and whole books have been written on love. This won’t be one of them. To put in my simple-man terms, love is wanting someone’s day to be better, wanting someone’s life to be better. If you see someone that’s sad, you go over and be sad with them. If you see someone that’s doing well, you help them celebrate! Jesus did this for many people. He saw that our lives were headed down the wrong path, so he came and died so that we could make a U-turn at the next light and come back to Him. He knew that was the only way life would get better again, so He did what He had to so it could happen. 

So if love is wanting to make someone’s life better, joy is the fulfillment that follows from helping people. But the joy, specifically of the Lord, is knowing that He has a mission for you that involves an input and output of love. First of all, He will never let you go. When you sign up to follow Him, it means that He is on a never-ending mission to make your life better. I could think of no better way to live than to follow the God who is 100% wanting and able to make your life better. 

But sometimes we get confused because we don’t have the right idea of what better looks like. But He always has a plan for what needs to get done and how. Sometimes God wants to change who we are, instead of where we are. You may think you need a raise, but God will tell you that you need a budget. You may think you need a longer weekend, when you need to spend your time more wisely. God is often in the business of changing us instead of just stuff. It doesn’t mean your circumstance will never change, but it might be that your situation isn’t the point in itself. God looks to change hearts, because from good hearts, good things flow. 

And once God’s love is pouring into you, it starts to overflow out of you. You start to want to make other people’s lives better. And as time goes on, you start to see all the things God has given you to do just that. You start to see that God is always providing ways to make the lives of those around you better. You start to become overwhelmed by the fact that God can’t be stopped, so you will always have something to give others, you will always have ways to improve the lives of those around you. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what God came to do: He gave everything He had so that He could make our lives better. Isn’t He just too cool?

So that leads us to our action step. Take some time to make a list of things you have been given. Are you a good mechanic? Are you fun to be around? Are you good at writing? Pray and ask God what He has given you to give to others. Start looking for ways, big or small, that you can make people’s lives better. Don’t make it weird and don’t burn yourself out trying to overdo it, but pick one or two ways this week that you can make someone’s life a little better. Maybe you can over-tip when you go out to eat. If you can’t afford it, tell your server they are a wonderful person and that they are doing a great job. Again, don’t make it weird, but have some fun, get creative with it and pray into what adventures God has for you. I’m sure He has something in store just for you. All you have to do is start looking for it. I promise if you try this out, it will have drastic changes on your life. Just give it a go, what’s the worst that could happen? 

Until next time

May Peace be your guide.