Joy

This past month has been a struggle for joy. I miss home. I actually miss the U.S. That surprises me, and I’m sure those of you who have heard me rant about the U.S. may be surprised as well. Even though God's been growing my heart for Ghana, he hasn't decreased my heart for South Dakota. If anything, he's grown it as well.

 

This summer I learned a lot about joy. I love joy. I love being reminded to be joyful. Who doesn't love joy, right? The bible has so much to say about joy, and some of those passages are ones that I can actually remember without Google's help! Here are some of those passages:

 

"You love him [Jesus] even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy." - 1 Peter 1:8

 

 “I [Jesus] have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" - John 15:9-11

 

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy." - James 1:2

 

"Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 

"Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again - rejoice!" - Philippians 4:4

 

"You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent." - Psalm 30:11-12.

 

So there we have it: be joyful. It's a clear command. We're called to be joyful in Christ, not in our circumstances. Reading those verses, should bring me comfort. But they don't. They make me feel guilty. Here I am IN GHANA, being abundantly blessed by the Lord in ways that I have yet to understand, and my joy isn't overflowing. It's hardly trickling.

 

But thankfully, there's still hope in all of this. I know that there is still a cause for joy, and I trust that someday (hopefully soon) my joy will be fully restored. It will overflow. Possibly even pour like the rainstorm currently outside my window.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." God is making this year beautiful. I just can't see it yet. And I'll continue to rejoice in him even though the beauty in this is invisible to me.

 

There's a band called Page CXVI that remakes hymns. They have a song called "Joy." At first, I didn't like it. But now, I connect with it. You should listen to it all the way through because the ending has solid truth.

 

 

If you want to know more about the inspiration for it, click here to read the musician's explanation.

 

My joy is currently entangled with sorrow, but that's okay. Joy isn't merely happiness. As Latifah Phillips (vocalist for Page CXVI) says, "joy is not simply an expression, but an attitude and acknowledgment of the deep peace of knowing a Savior."

I have joy. I have the deep peace of knowing Jesus, the only one who can save me - the only one who can save us. I'm just hurting from missing fall in South Dakota and my family and friends there. But because God is who he is, it is still well with my soul.

So let's have great joy in him. There's nothing else worth finding joy in. And even if we're hurting, we can still rejoice in that fact God saves us. He meets us in our hurt, heals us, and gives us a reason to find joy in him alone.