Discovering Joy in the Pressing

Do you remember joy? Do you remember the last time you felt an overwhelming sense of delight, anticipation, and confidence in what you were hoping for? When I think of joy, I remember the sense of excitement that left me sleepless on Christmas Eve waiting for dawn, a slide down a long snowy hill moving faster and faster until the inevitable bail, or being launched into the water by my father on a hot summer day. Joy, to be delighted, full of anticipatory hope and gladness. The prophet Jeremiah associates joy with the excitement of a wedding ceremony. Jeremiah 33:11 (NIV), ” the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and the bridegroom”. Who would not want to live like this, full of joy?

Joy for me was a long time in coming. A wait long enough to make me wonder that perhaps it was not my gift to have, but I wanted it. Webster’s dictionary defines joy as…wait for it…”a feeling of happiness that comes from success, good fortune, or a sense of well-being”. The dictionary authors have perhaps sold it short. Actually, the definition is slightly depressing. I have success, it has not brought me joy. I have good fortune, it has not brought me joy. I have a strong sense of well-being, this is not joy, not the joy that is described by Jeremiah or by a young child about to meet their Christmas morning.

God’s word sets an unexpected pattern for finding joy, a different way. It directs us to count joy in trials (James 1:2-3). It shows us that Jesus walked the road to the cross for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Jeremiah 15:16 (ESV) reads, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight in my heart”. It is a lovely verse. One can imagine King David praising the LORD with these words in a royal garden, filled with beautiful things and beautiful people. But that is not the scene. This verse is contained within a passage where just a few verses earlier (v. 10) the prophet Jeremiah cries, “Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me”. Jeremiah was chosen by God to deliver horrific news to the people of God regarding their future. And in the middle of this he declares, “your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart”. How did he do that? How did Jeremiah find joy in such a dark set of circumstances?

Jeremiah chose to walk the path purposed for him, knowing he was serving a sovereign God. He struggles with this choice, recorded earlier in the book, but he chooses none the less to surrender to it. Jesus chose to walk the path purposed for him, knowing he was part of the biggest plan. His struggle with the plan is documented in Matthew 26, but he surrenders to it. The Apostle Paul too, knew joy in the midst of much suffering. He again, chose to walk the path set before him, confident in the One who set the path. It is a repeat story, in the scriptures, and in the lives of Christ followers. Those who know authentic joy walk confidently under the knowledge that their God is who He says He is, sovereign, faithful, able and paying attention. Joy comes from surrendering my plans for His (He is a much better planner anyway).

I have joy, finally. Webster does sell it short. Pure sweetness, that is joy. How does it find me, this gift? Or how do I find it? It does not come from searching for success, good fortune or a sense of well being. It comes from gratitude and faith when all seems to oppose what I have planned, hoped, dreamed and prayed for. It comes from laughing in the face of yet another difficult thing stacking on the pile of difficult things, knowing with certainty that a God who is able to set the planet with a thought, chooses to take me through the fires of life rather than take me around them. It comes from clinging to scripture promises that declare the testing of my faith produces endurance (James 1:3), and endurance is necessary to lead me to hope (Roman 5:4-5). Mostly it comes from knowing who my Heavenly Father is. Turns out, joy is mine for the choosing.