Fighting for Joy

Pandemic. Uncertainty. Suffering. Chaos. Weeping. Disappointment. Joy?

Joy is something I’ve been thinking on for a while now – what is it really, how can we get it and keep it, can we get it and keep it? The Bible has much to say about joy: ‘Rejoice in the Lord’ and ‘Rejoice always’ to quote a brief few. But lately, the call to ‘Rejoice’ has been feeling like a dutiful command that I don’t know how to achieve, like a slap in the face when I’m feeling despair.

I’m currently reading The Life You Never Expected by Andrew and Rachel Wilson, which includes a great chapter on fighting for joy. Apparently George Müller wrote in 1841: ‘The first and great primary business to which I must attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord’. Andrew Wilson summarises: ‘In other words, my first job every morning is to get happy in God, because until I am I am no use to anyone’. No use to anyone. Who-a.

In this world and in these times, I think we are taught to hold ‘joy’ in balance alongside suffering. We’re reminded that ‘joy’ doesn’t mean that we are happy all the time, but instead it is something deep-set within us, meaning we are not shaken because our sure trust is in God. The thing is, somehow, somewhere along the line, I’ve reduced this to thinking we can have joy without being happy at all, forgetting that ‘the main purpose of a human being [is] to bring glory to God and be happy in Him’ (The Westminster Catechism quoted by Andrew Wilson).
Reading that again, it says the main purpose of a human being. Not ‘the main purpose of the Christian life’. To glorify God and enjoy Him is built into the very fabric of us, not just written into the story of us.

C.S. Lewis said ‘It’s a Christian duty for everyone to be as happy as he can’. Why? Because in pursuing happiness in God we delight in Him, therefore glorify Him all the more effectively. Because pursuing joy in God is how we fight sin in our lives. Because Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).
This joy comes from the Bible, from other people, from speaking positively, from good habits, from celebrating. That in itself appears backwards, no? Doesn’t celebrating come from feeling joyful? Yet the Psalms are full of instances where the writer shouts at their own soul to praise God and exhorts people to sing, shout, dance. It’s like the writer is petitioning their own heart, urging themselves to praise, to physically express worship. And isn’t it true that jumping and dancing with abandon lifts our hearts? I’ve found listening to Grateful by Casey Adam so helpful in instructing my soul to praise God and be thankful.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

– Psalm 42:11

I am so often temped to blame being British for my lack of exuberance or outward outpouring of emotion. Our culture doesn’t know how to lament and mourn, but maybe we don’t know how to be unashamedly joyful either. In the Bible, when Job was grieving his friends wept, tore their robes, put dust on their head, sat on the ground in silence for a week. To celebrate, David danced before the Lord with all his might. Compare this to British culture and I’m reminded of Hermione Granger when she accuses Ron of having the emotional range of a teaspoon.
It’s like my insides are screaming, but all that breaks the surface of apparent indifference is a little laugh, a single tear.

But really, I can’t blame British culture. Fundamentally, I’m a human being, meaning I’m made to glorify God and be happy in Him. There’s no exclusion clause in the small print.

Maybe, really, the first key in fighting for joy when ‘Rejoice’ feels like a dutiful command, or when feelings of despair persist, is noticing that word in there: feeling. My feelings yo-yo even on a great day, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The One we’re made to glorify and enjoy is unchanging, there is always reason to praise Him.

All this reminds me of Galatians 5:17: ‘For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.’ The Spirit in me wants to praise the Lord with everything I’ve got, but the fallen human-nature flesh in me can’t see how to rejoice. It’s a fight for joy.

In all this external-processing, please don’t read what I’m not saying. Fighting for joy isn’t a simple case of ‘fight harder’. If it were we’d be faced with a whole other destructive guilt cycle. The Psalms also show us that its just as important to learn to lament with God as it is to learn to be joyful in Him. Pain, disappointment, the battle for mental health – it’s all very real and it all undoubtedly makes the fight for joy a greater struggle.
Rather, reflecting on joy has confronted my cynical thinking and my heart attitude, and is challenging me to cry ‘Bless the Lord O my Soul’ because I know He is worthy, even if I don’t feel like it.

This is the day, that You have made
Whatever comes, I won’t complain
For all my hope, is in Your name
And now Your joy, awaits my praise.

– Elevation Worship

The challenge to implement change:

• Wilson writes: ‘Asking ourselves what helps me get happy in God, and how can I make it a regular part of my life is really important’.
• The Bible is joy-fuel for us. Is this how I think of the Bible?
• Where can I speak positively, not sarcastically, an encouragement, not a complaint? Not to air-brush hardship but to point to the source of joy.
• Physical expressions of celebration foster delight in God. Primary school hymns shout-out: teach me to dance to the beat of your heart, teach me to move in the power of your spirit!