Rejoice Always

This week I did not feel like rejoicing. I am in the cranky part of the year (I am a very complicated lady, I most definitely have extended cranky stages) and was more content to sit and mope and dwell on all the sad things in my life.

Then I saw that this month’s bible study was on rejoicing. I’m not ashamed to say that my heart sunk and I spent some time dreading talking about this. What kind of hypocrite did that make me that I was supposed to talk about rejoicing when all I wanted to do was to complain and pout? And maybe yell a little too. You know, just get all angry and worked up. But then we started to get deeper into this study and it became increasingly apparent that this was the perfect time for this study.

So of course when you think of rejoicing, first off you think of something fantastic happening. You think of a new baby, a wedding, a promotion, something that is huge and life altering…or if not that, something that is really exciting. This was certainly the case for the 72 that were sent out by Jesus to proclaim the message of God. They were excited, perhaps even rejoicing over the fact that they had authority over the demons. And honestly, they had ever reason to be excited about that. Think of your life, think of the things that tempt you, especially those temptations that are dang near impossible to overcome. That thing that you confess to every week, that you want so badly to stop doing but you just aren’t able to. Now imagine having control over it. Imagine not being controlled by it. It’s a good feeling right? And it’s something that you should be excited about. The danger comes when that’s where the rejoicing ends. When we, or when the 72, are so focused on what we are doing right now that we forget about what we really should be rejoicing in…the promise of everlasting life. That is of course our main source of rejoicing.

And this is great news. I am excited about this, really I am, but it’s still not enough to bring me out of my “My life sucks; why should I rejoice?” funk. Even reading through some of the Pauline descriptions of pain and sorrow being a blessing really wasn’t doing it. All that did was make me feel like a terrible Christian because I have way fewer problems (99 problems and persecution ain’t one) and yet I dwell on them way more and put them right in the centre of absolutely everything.

And that, my friends, is when it hit me. I put my problems right in the centre of everything.

Take a minute and go and look at John 16:20-22

Go ahead, I can wait.

It’s even hyperlinked for your ease.

Hope you like the ESV.

You can change it if you like.

You could even pull out your own bible.

Anyways, hopefully by now you have read it.

I love it.

I don’t think I had ever given it too much attention previously. It was always one of those parts that seemed to be really aimed at the disciples. I am apparently not the brightest crayon in the box!

There is a crazy amount of comfort in that section. More than Paul’s intimidating dedication to Christianity is Jesus’ words of understanding. He begins by saying that he completely understands how the disciples will feel. He knows that they will feel sorrow and he knows that they will go through a cranky stage that no one will understand. While the whole rest of the world is rejoicing, they will be filled with sorrow. This isn’t just the message for the disciples, it’s the message for us too. When we’re struggling with feelings of sorrow, even though it feels wrong because the whole of everyone around us is happy and joyful, it’s ok. It’s a natural reaction, something that we’re all prone too.

As you have noticed, that isn’t where the passage ends. Jesus goes on to say that even though you feel sorrow now, it isn’t forever. Our sorrow will be turned to joy.

It’s a huge promise; the fact that not only will we have joy, but it will be a joy that is never taken away.

This is the part that we don’t think about when we’re in the midst of our sorrow. We don’t stop and wonder about the joy that is to come. Heck, we don’t even think about the things that bring us joy right now. When we’re in the middle of our sorrow, our grief, our cranky stage, that is all that there is.

Let’s create a hypothetical situation here. Let’s pretend that you have an old beater of a car. It is on it’s last legs. But you are a thrifty person and continue to drive it. The inevitable happens and your car dies. Since it is May in Saskatchewan it is pouring rain. Also your phone is dead. It happens to be on a busy street, where everyone can see you. Oh, and did I mention that you are now late for a very important meeting? What a day!

Now, let’s play thesaurus and describe your mood. Angry, grumpy, embarrassed, extremely cranky and disappointed with the way everything is turning out.

Now let’s play the antonym game. In this hypothetical situation you are thankful that it happened on a busy road where people could see you, happy that you could meet new people, excited for the opportunity to buy a new car and grateful to have a legitimate excuse to miss out on a boring meeting.

Those aren’t the first things that come to mind. In our sorrowful, frustrating, embarrassing situations it’s the negative factors to which we hold fast. We get so entangled in these terrible things that we fail to see how anything good could possibly come from this.

This is what I think of with the passage from John. Jesus realizes that we are human, we have human emotions and sorrow and sadness is part of that. We shouldn’t try and pretend those emotions don’t exist, because they do, they always will. The important part is that we don’t dwell on these emotions. We don’t make sorrow the be all and end all of our lives. We realize that there is more than sorrow. There is joy. We have a great deal for which we can rejoice, and for which we should rejoice. When we dwell on the negative we do ourselves a disservice because we neglect everything around us that is meant to bring us joy.

I will always have my cranky times. There will always be things that make me sad. You will be filled with sorrow at many times during your life. What we want to look at is what comes after the sorrow. We look for the joy that comes from God in all circumstances. We ask God for the strength to see beyond our sadness and to look instead at his amazing love and that is when we begin to rejoice.