Not-So-Elusive Joy

Dear Sisters,

Joy, for me, is one of the more elusive passions of life.  I struggled with finding much to write about joy (a good indication I needed to wrestle and write about this).  My favorite place to start is the dictionary.  I love to get to the true root of a word or thought.  One of Webster’s 1828 definitions for joy is;  “n. A glorious and triumphant state–, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.  Hebrews 12:2″

I often march through the house, grim and determined to get the cleaning finished and kids through their schoolwork.  I will the laundry to be done and dinner to be delicious (that’s after I figure out what it is going to be).  All while giving a passing thought to perhaps not being quite so tight-lipped and quick to order the kids about.  They probably think I hate my job at times, while I most definitely do not.  I have had other careers and I love my stay-at-home, run-my-own-shop job!  I cannot even imagine another job I would rather have.  That being said, I thrive on challenges and perfection.  I will gladly deny myself relaxation and other treats until after all the work is done.  I look askew at my husband when he sits down with a movie and a treat while dishes are piled in the sink.  HOW can he enjoy himself when the dishes need-to-be-done?!

I like the above definition of joy.  Muscles clenched, sweat dripping, suffering, accomplishing much.  Yes!  Digging deeper, ironically, this definition is a noun.  As Christ hung on the cross, he didn’t have this joy; He saw it in the distance and accepted He would endure to receive it.

Another definition: “v. to rejoice; to be glad; to exult –I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk  3:18 ” A verb this time, an action!!  Getting excited about God and His salvation—I can do that!  Yet, take a look at the tiny book of Habakkuk, this definition’s reference.  The prophet saw destruction and distress coming, famine and want.  This book certainly does not have a party theme to it, yet even in his tears, Habakkuk found himself rejoicing in God’s salvation.  “The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.”  Hab. 3:19

Perhaps joy is not as elusive as I previously thought.  It is not circumstantial.  It is, however, reliant on our immutable, unchangeable, wholly good God.  How glad I am that He is the root of my joy—my circumstances may change, my life may utterly disintegrate, but He has, is, and always will be the end;  The most perfect, glorious end.  As C.S. Lewis put it at the end of The Last Battle, “And as He [Aslan] spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after those were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.  And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.  But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page:  now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read:  which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Running with You,

Rebecca