What Have You Missed?
Joy? Seriously? That’s what we are going to talk about right now? Have you seen the news recently? Have you scrolled through social media at all over the past few years? You do realize that we have been in a full blown global pandemic for the past 3 years, right? Yes? So, let me get this straight, you have been living in the same world we have for the past 3 years, seeing and hearing the same things that we have been seeing and hearing, and you thought to yourself, “With everything that we have endured the past few years, and everything that is happening around the world currently, now is a fantastic time to talk about joy!” Have you lost your mind?
Pastors. I just don’t understand them sometimes.
I kid, but I would bet that at least one person out there heard that we were going to be beginning a new series on joy and had some thoughts similar to those written above.
Joy is often confused with happiness. Happiness is circumstantial. Joy is not. Many people consider the two words synonyms, but if we are referring to biblical joy, they couldn’t be more different. Joy is present even in the most trying of times. Happiness is not. James tells us to count it all joy when we face trials of many kinds (1:2). Why? Because we know that our faith is tested through the trials of life, and those trials strengthen our endurance, which is what will carry us into eternity with our Father (1:3-4). We can still have joy in those difficult moments knowing that the trial we are facing is nothing more than a temporary means to an incredibly worthwhile end.
Pastor Clay talked about three ways to have joy in his sermon on Sunday. They were:
1 - Remember the triumphs of the past.
2 - Reflect deeply on today.
3 - Refocus on your hope for the future.
Those verses from James are a great example of how we can refocus on our hope for the future.
The one that stood out to me most was to reflect deeply on today. I was at the greenway on Friday (I know you are shocked), and I started thinking about how easily moments pass us by without us even realizing it. It is so easy to let our yesterdays invade our today to the point that we completely miss today all together. On the other hand, it is just as easy to let the worries of tomorrow weigh so heavily on us that we miss the miracles of today. Life happens all around us each and every day, and we miss so much of it. When was the last time that you stopped and zeroed in on what was happening in your immediate vicinity?
For example, right now I am sitting at my writing desk at home typing this blog post on my laptop. One of my cats is in the chair next to me taking a bath. I have had cats my whole life, and it still baffles me that they can and will clean their entire bodies with their tongue. I also find it quite fascinating that they just instinctively know to do it. I love that they care about their cleanliness. Cats do not like to be dirty. They spend so much time bathing. I wish my kids cared as much as they do about being clean. How do they know to lick their paw and use it to wipe their face? It’s just amazing to me. It is a reminder to me of my Creator God and how He planned everything out from the beginning, down to the detail of how cats would go about cleaning themselves (Psalm 139:13-16).
No, I did not smoke something funky before sitting down to write this. This is just what happens when I stop to consider what is happening right around me. Being present in the moment and considering what is happening in the here and now always leads me back to God somehow. I also have the blinds open currently, and it is killing me to be inside when there is so much beautiful sunshine happening right outside my window, but I digress.
Do you know who is excellent at living in the present moment? Children. Sometimes it seems like little kids don’t even know that there are such things as tomorrow or yesterday. They are always in the here and now. You can be in the biggest hurry because you are late for a birthday party that your kid is attending, and they will stop everything to stare at an ant they saw walking across the sidewalk. In that moment, the ant is the only thing that exists. What birthday party? But mom, do you see this ant? How does it carry something so big? This must be the strongest ant on the planet! It’s like they have never seen an ant before. The world could be falling down around them, and they would not even notice because they are laser-focused on this ant.
At what age do we lose that ability? When do we stop being able to shut out the world and remain laser-focused on the moment we are in today?
Luke 10:19 says this, “At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, ‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way’.”
Why would God choose to only reveal things to the “childlike”? Maybe it is because children have this incredible ability to live in the todays of life and not the yesterdays or tomorrows. Maybe it is because children have the uncanny ability to block out the things of this world that would fight to distract them from wondering about the ant that is walking across the sidewalk. Maybe it is because children instinctively know to run to their father when they are scared or need help. Maybe it is because children do not allow the worries of life to get in the way of being present in the here and now. Maybe it is because children don’t let the distractions of life prevent them from experiencing the wonders of their Creator that are right in front of them.
To be honest, I have no idea what the answer is. I have my suspicions, but I am not certain of the answer. All I know is that Jesus had an affinity for children, and scripture references having a childlike faith a lot. So there must be something special about them. There must be something that we lose in adulthood which creates some kind of separation from God in some way. Perhaps, we should begin paying more attention to what God is trying to teach us about faith through the lives of little children. We may just uncover the secret to experiencing great joy no matter our circumstances.