Brimming with Joy.

Have you ever had one of those weeks when you feel so accomplished, thinking clearly, you're reading the Bible, staying active, checking things off your list?

I was sitting at Panera last week watching people all around, the line was out the door, world was buzzing about and I was just in the center of all the chaos with a book in hand and a cup of coffee resting on my growing tummy.

I looked at my cup of coffee and saw the words "Brimming with Joy".

Yes that's what I am.... Brimming.... Overflowing.... With joy....

Joy. My middle name. A 3-letter word.
Such a small word and
such large, bursting emotion.

And yet seems so hard to find. 

God values Joy. Cheerfulness. Gladness.

"A cheerful heart makes a happy face..." Proverbs 15:13

"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart..." Proverbs 16:30

"A cheerful heart is good medicine..." Proverbs 17:22

We don't have "one of those weeks" every week. We don't feel joyful all the time or seem to find joy too easily, but God wants us to be joyful, rejoice and be glad. He sent His only son so we could be joyful. I look at my cup of brimming joy and I'm reminded of Paul (which happens to be our sermon series right now). We go through seasons of our own kind of prison on earth. Nothing makes sense. Nothing is clear. Life seems to drag on and on, being with Christ sounds better than living on earth. I'm pretty sure Paul felt confused and unclear some days while sitting in the Roman prison, but when he writes his letter to the church of Phillipi, he isn't complaining about his prison, instead, he is rejoicing, he is joyful and glad. Paul is finding joy in prison, in his suffering.
Instead of condemning ourselves for not being more like Paul and being cheerful in the midst of chaos, we can look to Paul as someone we can strive to be more like, and model ourselves after him to choose joyfulness like he did.

 I wasn't so joyful yesterday when my computer wasn't working right (that, or I don't know how to work it yet!). Frustration was building, not-so-nice words rising up, tears about to burst, I did not choose joy. I let emotion take over. I drove home, threw my keys across the apartment (and maybe even the evil computer on the couch) and fell on the bed like some dramatic teenager. Did I choose joy in my frustration? Nope! I was not being much like Paul or listening much to the wisdom of Proverbs.

But ya know what, this "being joyful in the moment" seems to be a new lesson to be learned. Pretty much every book of the Bible talks about rejoicing, praising the Lord, giving thanks in all things. I did NOT want to be joyful or thank the Lord when my computer wasn't working (maybe the computer is a really lame example, but that's all I got right now!). Point is, we have to consciously choose to say "Thank you Lord for this crappy situation, I don't like it, it's frustrating, but thank you anyway", otherwise, we'll revert back to being a dramatic teenager crying on the bed, being miserable, hating life.

I'm reading this pretty great book right now, "one thousand gifts" By: Ann Voskamp and she talks about finding joy and being thankful in trials. Don't we all long to find joy? To be more joyful? To feel more joy? Don't we search the world to find it? 

In Jesus' last hours of life, he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them..."(Luke 22:19) Jesus put the eucharist at the center of Christianity,
the last hours of his life.

Eucharisteo. Original meaning "he gave thanks". Chara. Greek word meaning "joy".

Ann says, "Deep chara joy is found only at the table of eucharisteo - the table of thanksgiving....Is the height of my chara joy dependant on the depths of my eucharisteo thanks?....As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible....The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or in some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here! Here, in the messy, piercing ache of now..." (p.32-33)

Thankfulness and Joy go hand in hand.

We choose to thank and we will find joy.

Jesus gave us something to be thankful for and joyful about but we have to choose to thank.

I look back on my season of "prison" and I treasure the precious time, but also wish I chose to be more thankful in it all, through it all. Maybe Paul didn't learn overnight, maybe it took months or years to learn to be joyful in his suffering, maybe I'm on the path to learning, maybe we all are, but as long as we're learning and getting back up, then we're on the right path toward righteousness. Sometimes it takes a lot to get back up and keep going, but Paul kept pressing on and so can we. We might just find that joy we so desperately search for!

Thank you Lord I didn't smash my computer!  :)

Do you find it hard to get back up sometimes?