Editor’s Note: This week I welcome guest blogger, Debbie Marks. Debbie has a degree in social work, served for 30+ in pastoral ministry alongside her husband, is an educator, leads Bible studies, and has been a retreat speaker. I’m excited for her teaching this week.
From 2009-2013, our son, Alexander, began having many struggles—some physical issues, some mental health issues. He spent a lot of time at doctors’ appointments, some time in the hospital, and a week in an adolescent psychiatric hospital. Those years were very tough for our family, but none tougher than his death in 2013 at the age of 17. I don’t share my son’s story with you to shock you, but so you understand that the joy I experience has been formed in the fire of adversity.
Romans 12:12 says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
How can our joy abound no matter what? Because of the hope we have in Christ Jesus.
The certainty of the Christian’s hope is a cause for joy. We have a confident expectation and blessed assurance of God being present in our present circumstances and a future hope of our eternal life with Jesus based on God’s love for us.
Our joy will expand as our trust in God expands. Psalm 13:5 says, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” As we trust more and more in God’s faithfulness, our joy will grow as well. Our joy and trust are inseparable.
And joy can even come as we mourn. The psalmist says in Psalm 119:50, “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my joy.” The promise is the presence of God in the middle of the suffering. I’m convinced that God the Father mourns along with us in our suffering.
Psalm 56:8 says that “God holds our tears in a bottle.” This is a metaphor for God’s compassion. God is aware of our pain and suffering and remembers our tears. God values and remembers every sorrow experienced by His people because He deeply loves us.
So even as we mourn we can know joy because of God’s deep love that causes Him to mourn with us.
As we see, joy has nothing to do with happiness in our circumstances—some circumstances just stink. But when our joy is in Jesus, this joy gives us strength and actually can become a weapon against our despair, one we can use to fight in our less than desirable circumstances. Joy redirects our focus onto God who is our all in all. Nehemiah says that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (8:10).
So how do we fight back with joy?
We declare that the darkness will not win. John 1:5 says “The light (who is Jesus) shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.”
We embrace the deepest reality of our identity, which is that we are loved by the Creator of the universe. We are God’s beloved ones.
We declare that we are confident that God is with us and for us. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
We fight back with the assurance that we’re held in the tender arms of the One who is greater than us and the world.
We set our eyes on the eternal reality that awaits us that is more tangible what we’re enduring. Romans 8:18 states “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the immeasurable and everlasting glory that will be revealed IN us.”
We declare that we are deeply convinced that the battle has already been won through Christ. Jesus has conquered death, and for me the hope of life brings joy.
Joy is not just a theological exercise, something to aspire to, maybe. Joy is a choice, a choice that I made years ago that helped my life to flourish even amidst difficult circumstances.
Nothing about Alexander’s situation screamed of joy. It had all the earmarks of defeating me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But, as I mentioned earlier, joy is a mystery. Even in the midst of some of the darkest days, there was a settled assurance (which I don’t claim to understand) that God was in control, and ultimately He would make this right. How? I have NO idea! Please hear me—I’m NOT declaring I understand why this had to happen. Absolutely not!
But I have no doubt that God loves me, loves Alexander, and there’s a joy in that settled knowing. Even as we prepared for Alexander’s funeral service, I experienced joy as we celebrated what God had done in Alexander’s life, the person God created him to be, and the joy he brought into our lives, as well as many others, if only for 17 years.
Please understand, I still grieve Alexander. Every. Single. Day. But I do so while also holding joy with hope of being reunited with him. Joy and hope are inextricably connected.
One of my favorite authors is Kate Bowler, and she wrote this blessing for those holding joy and sorrow at the same time, and I think her words explain what I am trying to convey to you. I pray that these words may encourage you as you try to onto hold joy and sorrow.
“God, I can’t deny it, the way that sorrow catches up with me and forces me to pay attention. There is much to grieve, so much to lament in the world, in my life, in the lives of those I love. You have shown me again and again that I can look sorrow in the face. Take its hand and talk things over, because it shows me that I love. It tells me what I don’t want to lose. But now, God, I want to learn how to hold joy and sorrow at the same time. So bless us, God, we know that right when life gets heavy or hard or too much, we must carve a path to delight. To do something for no reason whatsoever but joy. Blessed are we who see the art in absurdity. Because life is unexpected and terrible and wonderful and absurd.”
Happiness is never guaranteed, but joy in the life of a Christian is not only possible, but needed. We need to choose joy!
Photo by Simone Eufemi on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 