June 16, 2015.

Flourishing Joy

Joy - it makes for a lovely name, bringing to mind delight and exuberance.  So infectious, one wonders why it is not written all over our faces; and yet I can almost taste the longing for it.  This next-in-line fruit of the Spirit, (Galatians 5:22), can seem so ethereal, so difficult to grasp and hold onto; so enchanting and yet so fleeting.  Is there anyone who portrays a deep and abiding joy? Don’t you want to be around them?  Don’t you want to drink from their well of satisfying joy?

A happy providence it is for me, that I have begun to study Philippians, the Apostle Paul’s letter that refers to joy on 16 different occasions.  Writing from a Roman prison, it is beyond coincidence that he and Silas had been imprisoned in Philippi, years before, because of the gospel. As it had been true for them in the Philippian jail, (where they prayed and sang hymns of praise-Acts 16: 25), so it was still true for Paul - joy was the antidote for its miserable opposite: misery.  He spoke of the Philippians as his joy and his crown, (4:1) and he encouraged them to rejoice in the Lord always (3:1; 4:4).  Had I been in Philippi the day his letter was read, I am so sure I would have wept for the sheer joy of knowing Paul’s immeasurable love for the church.

Joy, true joy, will not be hidden.  It will overflow from one’s life without a by- your- leave.   This Holy Spirit- infused gift is not about being an eternal optimist; it’s actually being an eternal realist. Recognizing that we live in a world that has its share of misery, we offer the joy of the gospel:

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, 

 who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, 

 and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

It has often been asked by many, including me, why there is evil if God is such a good God.  Why didn’t He create a world without misery?   Why did He give Adam and Eve a choice about whether they would rejoice in Him, or not?  As Pastor Pernell shared this past Sunday, we wish God had taken that choice away from THEM, but we would not want Him to take away OUR choices!  Oh no, that would wreck all our plans about what we want, when we want it and how we will get it.  We are so much smarter and wiser than Adam and Eve, and we are very sure that we would not have chosen the same path of disobedience, given the same circumstances.  But wait! 

You would think we would, even now, always choose joy.  You would think our newspaper headlines and television screens; our chat lines and text messages would exude joy.   But it is not always so.   Romans chapter one dispels the myth of finding joy in worshiping anything but the true God, and oh, the powerful truths about God letting us go to the terribly depraved consequences of our sad choices; misery personified.

Couldn’t, wouldn’t God just make all the ugly stuff disappear?   If that were to happen, then we would ultimately be without existence, since we are the ones making the awful choices.  It’s not like God is telling the lie or pulling the trigger or betraying us.  On the contrary, He is the One betrayed; He is the One put to death; He is the One to whom we have lied- denying His very existence.   He Himself has offered the only real solution to the problem of evil.  Becoming incarnate, Jesus has made a way for deep joy to be possible here, and His return will be its ultimate consummation:

“And though you have not seen him, you love him, 

 and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, 

 you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” (1 Peter 1:8)

William Lane Craig says:

 “So, paradoxically, even though the problem of evil is the greatest objection to the existence of God, at the end of the day God is the only solution to the problem of evil. If God does not exist, then we are lost without hope in a life filled with gratuitous and unredeemed suffering. God is the final answer to the problem of evil, for He redeems us from evil and takes us into the everlasting joy of an incommensurable good- fellowship with Himself.”  (http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-problem-of-evil#ixzz3dBtyJZqm).

Joy.  We’ve known it.  We’ve tasted it.  As the Spirit brings this fruit to maturity in the Christian, it will sustain you with great hope, day-by-day, through sorrow and heartache; hour-by-hour through tears and rejoicing.  Joy in the month of June…let it flourish, Lord Jesus!