Leadership Thought: How Far Can Your Joy Be Heard?

Dear Friends,

How far is your joy heard? The kind of joy  I'm thinking about  is the earth-shaking kind, the kind that rattles the very foundation of a community. It is the  kind that reverberates through a community like the  backside of a hurricane. It is the same kind of joy that was experienced in Nehemiah’s day as the community came together to celebrate the rebuilding of the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

If you want to read about what biblical joy sounds like, you might want to flip to the 12th chapter of Nehemiah. As you read this chapter, I suggest that you try and imagine the joyful expressions of thankfulness that must have resounded from the top of the wall as Levite's joined with choirs, and special singing groups who were surrounded by the sounds of symbols, lyres and harps all joining together to create a symphony of joyful praise. The joy of the Lord could not only be heard in Jerusalem but in places far distant from those walls (Nehemiah 12: 43)

I haven't heard a lot of that kind of joy expressed over the past year. Instead there has been fear and sadness, and  lots of frustration during a time when people were longing for the Pandemic to be over, and a time of  normalcy to return.

I am happy to say, however, that what little joy I have heard, has come from my colleagues in the faith here in our church, and that is the way it should be. We are a people that should be able to “rejoice in the Lord, always”(Philippians 4: 4), and that includes even in the midst of a Pandemic, for our joy is not based on outward circumstances but in the Lord.

It is worth remembering what Larry Crabb has written in Effective Biblical Counseling, when he discusses  the difference between joy and happiness.

“Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ like in the middle of our problems, but on finding happiness. I want to be happy, but the paradoxical truth is that I will never be happy if I am concerned primarily with becoming happy. My overriding goal must be in every circumstance to respond biblically, and  to put the Lord first, to seek to behave as He would want me to. The wonderful truth is that as we devote all our energies to the task of becoming what Christ wants us to be, He fills us with joy unspeakable and the peace far surpassing what the world offers.”

“Paul said it was his ambition (goal) not to become happy but to please God at every moment. What a transforming thought! When I drive my car to work and someone cuts me off, when my kids act up during church, when the dishwasher breaks,”  and yes, I might add, even when my wife, Jean goes on a trip taking  my only set of keys with her-it just happened……… (Through all of this) “my primary responsibility is to please God.” (Effective Biblical Counseling, Lawrence Crabb, pp. 20- 21).

Simply put if you want to be happy, you won't find it by seeking happiness. You will only find it through seeking the Lord. And when you do, you will not only discover happiness, but in the process, you will find something even greater-joy, real joy, the kind  that is never dependent on circumstances, but which is always dependent on the Lord.

Speaker and writer Tony Campollo reminds us, "The Kingdom of God is a Party.” And if this is true, and I believe it is, and if God’s will for us is to “rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all situations (1 Thess. 5:16-18),  then let’s put on our party hats and start to celebrate.

Yours in faith and friendship.

Tom

P.S. And didn’t Jesus say, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.”