Recently I was talking to my sister about "defiant joy". This is an attitude I've adopted over the years when circumstances, people and longings endeavour to bring heartache and steal my joy. Life has hardships. At the onset of an unexpected grief, I don't deny the agony or stifle the tears. The hurt is real and my emotions respond honestly. But, after a time of allowing my feelings to express their voice, for me, there comes an acknowledgement that I can't remain in the pain. Lingering too long in the sadness has no value. I encourage myself to give evidence of "defiant joy". It is a response that looks the enemy in the eye and declares that despite how things appear, my joy is in the Lord. It's brilliant, when it works.
It is a challenge to choose joy. When the road is hard and nothing to celebrate is easily evident, joy can seem like a cruel expectation. It's not possible to find joy in disease, divorce, diagnosis, disappointments, destruction, deconstruction, division, delays and detours. It's true. Each one of these is a weight with potential to paralyze any passion that once used to burst forth in exuberance.
Paul, the author of Philippians, encourages joy when "whatever happens". He doesn't give a list of possibilities. His wording is inclusive. "Whatever happens". If we were sitting over coffee right now, I'd love to know the "whatever happens" that have fallen into your lap. I'd tenderly take your hand, resist all distractions and listen. We can't rush through the sharing of our "whatever happens". They are deep, tough, unwelcomed and frightening. They can cause doubts and discouragement to arise. They don't seem fair and our fragile hearts can be on the verge of fainting away. How can anyone ask us to find joy in this? If tears testify to tragedy, won't joy diminish the value of our suffering?
Ah, there it is. We aren't being told to be joyful because of the "whatever happens"; we are told to be joyful in the Lord. Life can be in chaos, but God hasn't changed. Our joy can remain steadfast in Christ. But wait...isn't He the One who has allowed, permitted, or dare we say, sent this calamity to touch our lives? We are to have joy in the One who could have prevented this earthquake from unsettling our souls and causing our world to shake and crumble?
God requires our discipline of celebration to be an act of worship. It is easy to praise and be thankful when everything is going our way. Our natural response to good times is to sing and express happiness. Joy in the unnatural identifies us as belonging to the Lord. When troubles surround and surmount and we lift our voice in song, what a testimony to the Lord, even when our voices are no louder than a faint whisper and tears are the accompanying chords.
Paul writes that this type of offering safeguards our faith. As we rejoice our faith is strengthened because God inhabits the praise of His people (Psalm 22:3). As we exercise our joy muscle, our trust grows. God's very presence invades us as we praise. Focusing on joy turns our attention away from all the negative that is real and fixes our thoughts on what is true (Philippians 4:8). "Joy is not the absence of pain, it's the sacred acceptance of it." (Cheryl Brewster).
The problem is that most of us have a theology that justifies suffering. We turn quickly to the Psalms of lament, or the weeping prophet Jeremiah, or the Book of Lamentations and find solace in scripture that echoes how we want to feel. If we surrender to this too long, we will never want to walk the road that brings us out to a place of healing and hope. God is a Redeemer and joy is a mercy of God's grace that understands that beyond the grief there is a Saviour.
No comments:
Post a Comment