How does
joy become holy? It all depends on the
object of your joy. If your joy is about
having a certain experience, receiving a certain gift, getting a certain
reaction, then you will or will not have joy based on whether your expectations
are met. Presto-magic joy is achievable
under certain circumstances.
Holy joy is
an altogether different experience. If
your joy is found in the thing that cannot be taken away from you, you can have
joy in every circumstance you encounter this Christmas season. Let’s say you are stuck in the airport for
seventy-two hours while your dream vacations melts away. That is definitely not a joyful thought. You are hungry, tired, broke, disappointed
beyond measure. You can experience holy
joy. This comes from making the object
of your joy the reality that no matter how this situation plays out, you will
be stretched and drawn closer to God through your prayers and hopes for the
resolution you want and acceptance that His way has to be better even when you
can’t see it. It is totally possible to
find joy in hardships.
Paul’s most
joyful letter to the church in Philippi was written from his prison cell—now
that has got to be worse than missing days on your dream vacation and being
stuck in the airport for 72 hours. I’m
sure that Paul, being human, had a few tears and laments about his situation
from time to time. Those releases led
him to joy as he surrendered to whatever God had prepared for him. Holy joy cannot be created by human
effort. It is the total surrender of
trust and peace that God knows what He is doing and feeling blessed for what
you have.
Sometimes
it is hard to see the goodness you have been given when you feel like a
prisoner in an airport. In fact,
stopping to realize how much worse your situation could be is helpful toward
moving into holy joy. When you feel like
a prisoner, think about the innocent people who are literally prisoners, like
Paul. Realize that your situation isn’t
as bad as it could be. Think about your
fellow disappointed passengers and how some of them are dealing with health
issues you are not, or others have a fear of flying which is being prolonged
through the delay.
The birth
of Christmas was full of joy. It was
holy joy. There were tired pilgrims who
were met with overcrowded accommodations forcing them to seek shelter in a cave
used for animals. What joy they
discovered when they could make the feeding trough—the manger—a cradle for
their baby. The joy was shared when some
dirty shepherds burst into their private place with tales of angels and
directions and good news for all men.
They found unexpected joy in the old faces of Simeon and Anna when they
were privileged to see their Savior, for whom they prayed, as a baby. They likely felt joy when they realized the
generous gifts they were given in Bethlehem by the Wise Men were exactly what
they needed to sojourn in Egypt for the years they needed to be away until
Herod the Great died.
Holy joy
filled the Christmas scene most vividly in the transformation of the
shepherds. Luke 2:20 describes them: The shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which
were just as they had been told.
It’s
a season for joy, but when you experience holy joy your life is transformed.
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