Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Why does Paul say, "...I will say it again: Rejoice?" He has told us to rejoice in the Lord always once already so why the underlining of saying it again? Because we are not good at rejoicing. We, for the most part, suck at it. So Paul has to remind us to do it - again.
Last year I wrote and thought about joy A LOT, mostly because I am not a naturally joyfully person. Some of my friends would disagree with me on this one, but I believe that God has, for the past few months, been teaching me how to practice joy, and usually to practice it when I least want to do so.
Back in 2008, I lived in Bend, OR. It was one of the most transformational years of my up until now existence. I met with a woman in her mid forties who is currently a teaching pastor at one of the larger churches in the city. She is married with four children, one of whom is now married (and to date has a baby boy). We talked about being a female pastor in a male world, wrestling with motherhood while pursuing a call to pastoral leadership and many other topics graced our accompanying coffee dates. I was anxious to glean from her what it was like to be a pastor and those things which I really needed to know and those of which I needed to be aware in my new vocation. One of the things with which she was considering was this whole idea of joy. Although her life was pretty great, she was always aware that it was too great and what bomb was going to drop out of nowhere for her or her family. So she started a pursuit of finding joy - in everything. It was actually highly prophetic as little over a year ago, her husband developed Lou Gehrig disease - completely devastating news as there is no cure. However, her work on the pursuit of joy, or rather, the "Joy Project," had been done without her knowing that this would prove unbelievable preparation for the next phase in her family's life.
I haven't kept in regular contact with her since 2009 after I left Bend, but I do see various facebook posts and occasionally read her blog. The tenacity and relentless pursuit of life and joy amongst difficult circumstances has been inspirational. No one chooses such life threatening illnesses...they are not tests sent to us by a loving God, they are not what we would wish for those whom we love or anyone in fact, but how we handle them and live our lives with them is how much we trust and know that our lives here are short and we had better make the most of them while we have life. Hard to do, I know, in the mist of tragedy and adversity, but, as the Psalmist puts it, our lives are but mist... and mist is gone by the morning. We are also fully loved and cherished and gifted by an Almighty and Holy God so there is way more to just enduring calamities than we might imagine.
And so, back to joy. I am experiencing a lot of joy right now and there is the thought at the back of my mind that the shoe is about to drop (the first one hasn't yet and so it can't be the other shoe) and this time of joy will be short lived. However, that is missing the point of true joy. The Apostle, Paul tells us to REJOICE, oh, and by the way, to do that IN THE LORD.... and to do it ALWAYS. It is not a happy-clappy kind of joy that is totally reliant on how I am feeling or the circumstances in my life but completely dependent on the source of our joy - THE LORD. Only when I rely - completely and utterly - on HIM, will I experience fully joy, the God-given, Holy, amazing joy - no matter what.
I think that is why Paul then goes on to tell us not to be anxious about anything - because, believe me, there is plenty to be anxious about if we look at our circumstances and uncertainty around us. So we get to choose.... but Paul asks us to choose this one....
REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS!!!!
Back in 2008, I lived in Bend, OR. It was one of the most transformational years of my up until now existence. I met with a woman in her mid forties who is currently a teaching pastor at one of the larger churches in the city. She is married with four children, one of whom is now married (and to date has a baby boy). We talked about being a female pastor in a male world, wrestling with motherhood while pursuing a call to pastoral leadership and many other topics graced our accompanying coffee dates. I was anxious to glean from her what it was like to be a pastor and those things which I really needed to know and those of which I needed to be aware in my new vocation. One of the things with which she was considering was this whole idea of joy. Although her life was pretty great, she was always aware that it was too great and what bomb was going to drop out of nowhere for her or her family. So she started a pursuit of finding joy - in everything. It was actually highly prophetic as little over a year ago, her husband developed Lou Gehrig disease - completely devastating news as there is no cure. However, her work on the pursuit of joy, or rather, the "Joy Project," had been done without her knowing that this would prove unbelievable preparation for the next phase in her family's life.
I haven't kept in regular contact with her since 2009 after I left Bend, but I do see various facebook posts and occasionally read her blog. The tenacity and relentless pursuit of life and joy amongst difficult circumstances has been inspirational. No one chooses such life threatening illnesses...they are not tests sent to us by a loving God, they are not what we would wish for those whom we love or anyone in fact, but how we handle them and live our lives with them is how much we trust and know that our lives here are short and we had better make the most of them while we have life. Hard to do, I know, in the mist of tragedy and adversity, but, as the Psalmist puts it, our lives are but mist... and mist is gone by the morning. We are also fully loved and cherished and gifted by an Almighty and Holy God so there is way more to just enduring calamities than we might imagine.
And so, back to joy. I am experiencing a lot of joy right now and there is the thought at the back of my mind that the shoe is about to drop (the first one hasn't yet and so it can't be the other shoe) and this time of joy will be short lived. However, that is missing the point of true joy. The Apostle, Paul tells us to REJOICE, oh, and by the way, to do that IN THE LORD.... and to do it ALWAYS. It is not a happy-clappy kind of joy that is totally reliant on how I am feeling or the circumstances in my life but completely dependent on the source of our joy - THE LORD. Only when I rely - completely and utterly - on HIM, will I experience fully joy, the God-given, Holy, amazing joy - no matter what.
I think that is why Paul then goes on to tell us not to be anxious about anything - because, believe me, there is plenty to be anxious about if we look at our circumstances and uncertainty around us. So we get to choose.... but Paul asks us to choose this one....
REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS!!!!
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