Joy and Suffering are companions??

Maybe you have heard it said that money cannot buy you happiness.  But, a friend of mine didn’t totally agree with this and said: it would give you the opportunity to buy you a big yacht and sail up to it real close. 

When you hear the word “happy” what companion would you associate with it?  In other words, what makes people happy?  We often associated it with some body or some- thing.

When you hear the word “JOY” what comes to mind for you?  

Regardless of how you see either of these two words, Joy needs a companion also, what would you think it might be?    

Dec 14 2014 Readings:   Isaiah 12: 2-6 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-28

Have you ever heard that Happiness and joy are not the same?   Most of us have experienced happiness as fleeting, it doesn’t stick around for long, it is illusive, a product of the mind.   Worldly expressions of Joy are sometimes called happiness, but happiness comes and goes just like your pay check Folks.  One minute you have it the next minute some body or some “THING” has it.  The Joy found through faith in God and taught by Jesus, is not fleeting and does not require happiness as a companion.    Does that surprise you? 

The Advent Joy is deeper than happiness, once you get it, it is a lasting joy and it is not dependent on you being with or attached to a person or thing.  Joy radiates from its source and your relationship to that source.  Try and think of it as a  knowing, something of the heart, a very present help in times of trouble. Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  IF you know that, it is a major part of your “JOY”

 When you accept this joy, it’s yours forever and no circumstance has the power to take it from you, although you do have the power to refuse it or reject it.   Once you have accepted this joy, the words of scripture begin to speak volumes, not just to your head, but deep within your heart.  Such as Psalm 27: God is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? God is the stronghold of my life: of whom shall I be afraid.  You see the Joy our Advent offers us dispels death, darkness, and quiets our worldly fears. 

As strange as this may sound, biblical Joy is fruit that is produced because of some struggle or suffering in your life.  Does that disturb you?!!   Mary and Joseph, John the Baptist, Jesus, any of His disciples and ordinary people like me or you can attest to that.  In James 1:2  we hear:   My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, ³ for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is joy and the ability to endure.  You can’t have one without the other, suffering and joy are companions.  The struggle here is that your mind doesn’t want you to see them as companions.    Yet Joy and suffering as buzzer as it may sound to some are, much the same as hot is to cold or darkness is to light.  As we read the story of Jesus’ birth there is a mixture of pain and suffering for both Mary and Joseph in the beginning, yet on the other side of their difficulties the results are great joy for both of them and the world.   Jesus' death on the cross was a facsimile of this joy.  The brain on its own cannot comprehend joy because it is contained within the heart.  The bible tells us that the Joy offer to us in Advent, the joy of the lord, would be a joy the world would reject.  Somewhere deep down in our hearts we know that you can’t really appreciate light until you have been in the pit of darkness.  You can’t feel relief, unless you have experienced the pain.   Joy and suffering are companions, they go hand in hand.  That is why we sing:   “When the storms of live are raging I hear music in the air.  The song “Over my head I hear music in the air.”

You can’t really appreciate the joy of living that the bible teaches us, until you have learned to work with and appreciate the bitterness of life.  Again, what did James 1: verse 2 say:   My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, ³ for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is joy and the ability to endure.

We also know that continual happiness is a foolish dream, a fragment of our imagination and besides, it’s illusive.  Have you ever wondered why that is so true?    Well, happiness requires tangible things, to hold on to.   Joy on the other hand required you to let go of your things.   One of the greatest examples comes to us from the Christmas story with Mr. Screwed.  As he goes through the reflections of his life with the angle of death he is portrayed as being chained to things.  There he is, dragging them along as the angle of death takes him back through his life.  In the end when he realizes his folly in life, only then are the things he is chained to released and thankfulness and gratitude floods his soul and “Joy takes root in his life.”   

Joy bring you something much greater than happiness.   In joy you will find contentment; people, things and circumstances lose their power over you allowing the greatest gift of Advent to invade your life, “love”.   For Screwed, things became gifts to give rather than to receive.    Now I know that might not be good news for some people, but it should be good news for the people of God.  

I want you to think about this for a moment folks, happiness does not bring contentment, because the feelings are short lived.  The folly of happiness is where it is planted.  Happiness plants itself in a superficial soil where it cannot take root.  The proof in the pudding as we often say is this: soon we slip back into old patterns of wanting someone to fill the whole in my life or the need for more things, so we can be happy again.  It is a vicious circle of unending, happiness then unhappiness.   With happiness contentment is always eluded, you can only get close up to it with your yacht as I joked with you earlier.    Now for the good news folks:  The Advent joy that is offered to us, if accepted, can become rooted because of where it is planted.   Once planted it will begin to take root.  The key to Joy is its soil.  Where do you think it finds its roots?  Anyone want to take a shot at it.  If you do this small exercise every morning Joy will begin to flood your soul just as it did for Mr. Screwed.  Make your Advent new year’s resolution for joy, this:  begin a gratitude journal.  Its that simple!!  True Joy takes root and grows in the soil of gratitude, thankfulness. If you were to take a few moments at the beginning of every day and write just one or two things you are grateful for in your journal you will begin to sense this joy.  As you reflect daily on what you have written and by adding to the list each morning, you will soon begin to see how your “JOY” takes root.  This Joy cannot be taken from you because the roots begin to go deep.   It doesn’t come from people or things, Joy doesn’t just make you happy it begins to fill that emptiness people often express in their lives.  Once you receive it you begin to understand the meaning of a joy-filled life.  

 One of the great examples to illustrate this is; a women going through a full term of  pregnancy.  Often the joy of finding out turns to fear, then you become uncomfortable, your body begins to loose it shapeliness.  Often rashes brake out; there’s morning sickness, and major mood swings often occur.  It doesn’t stop there either: soon you feel the pains of labor, then and only then comes the JOY?   Mothers tell of the overwhelming joy at the birth of a child, Great JOY!  You can bet your boots that Mary experienced all these things before the birth of her baby Jesus. 

This was the experience of Mary and Joseph on that wonderful night.  Joy did not mean that their troubles were over, but the joy Jesus would bring to the world would last for eternity.  Joy is the quiet confident assurance of God’s love and work in your life.

Isn’t that GREAT!