In keeping with the spirit of advent and the lighting of the joy candle this week , I wanted to share a devotional that my wife shared with our Church.
In Luke 2:8-11 we read: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
Joy. It’s a word that has become more elusive to me with age. I don’t necessarily think it’s harder to have joy, but it is harder for me to define joy. Because, with added years, I have experienced added heartbreak, suffering, pain, and death. And suffering doesn’t seem conducive to joy.
But James 1:2-4 says this:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
As a child who grew up in a loving home, joy seemed easy to me. It seemed a given. It didn’t seem like something you chose, it seemed like something you had.
The thing we learn about joy, though, is that it’s not a given. We don’t all automatically have joy: we choose it.
What would you say is the opposite of joy? If we don’t have joy, what do we have? Despair? Misery?
So then, if we don’t choose joy, does that mean we choose misery? I don’t know. It seems it may be so.
What I do know is the angel told the shepherds on that first Christmas that the good news of the birth of Jesus would cause great joy for all the people.
That’s it? That’s all we need?…A birth announcement?
You may question that. There was a time when I certainly did. But I now believe that Jesus is the answer to every human need. I believe it wholly: figuratively and literally.
The birth of Jesus changed the trajectory of mankind.
Why? What changed? Fundamentally, everything changed. Love—true love—arrived on the scene when Jesus made Himself like us, so that He could make a way for us. The misery we had experienced because we were separated from God and trying to live up to standards that were not achievable or sustainable by mere humans was replaced with hope, because Jesus—fully God and fully human—came to redeem and restore us. And hope gave way to peace because we were no longer toiling for something unachievable in our brokenness.
Love arrived, hope was given, and peace was extended to earth. But joy? We choose Joy. We step into joy whenever we look at our lives with hearts of gratitude to God for making a way for us. It’s impossible to give thanks to God and simultaneously feel abandoned or hopeless. When we remember that Jesus came so that no heartbreak or hardship would be the end of the story, we write joy into our lives. It’s perspective, really, but it’s so much more.
When Christmas hits different because life has been hard and we still choose to trust that God is good and Jesus is with us and hope is real, we choose joy. It is our choice. Let’s let the Good News of Jesus bring great joy—it is, after all, for all of us.
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