True joy

What is joy? What does it feel like? What does it look like? What is it? The first entry from Merriam-Webster online dictionary says that joy is: "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires." To be honest, I don't like this definition of joy. It makes joy sound superficial, like we can only experience joy when we have things that we desire. That is not at all the case. 

In my opinion, joy is more than just an emotion or a feeling. It goes deeper than that. Joy is a lifestyle. Joy is a state of being. I have seen too many people, dirt poor, who experience joy to believe that joy comes from gaining some material thing that you desire. Yes, sometimes we can get joy from these things, but like I said before, joy is deeper. 

I am a firm believer that we can only experience true joy when we have established an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Anything apart from Jesus is fraudulent. Nonbelievers can feel happiness, but they can not experience true joy. This kind of joy can only come from the Father. 

Don't get me wrong. If you are a Christian and you know true joy, this does not mean that you show it outwardly all the time. This does not mean that you never feel down-in-the-dumps. You will have days when you really don't feel joyful at all. However, like I said, I don't believe that joy is just an emotion.  

Joy is finding out that you or a loved one has just been diagnosed with a terminal disease such as cancer yet still choosing to praise God despite the circumstances. Job said it best in Job 1:21 (NIV), "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Joy is realizing that what we are given in life comes from God, and He has the right to take those things away from us. Yet even if He chooses to do so, He is still to be praised, and we are still to rejoice in His name. Even if everything - our family, our friends, our possessions - was taken away from us, knowing and experiencing God is more than good enough. That alone is cause for joy. 

Let's go back to Job. This man had everything bad happen to him. He lost all of his life-stock and land. All of his children died. His wife basically abandoned him to suffer alone. He was afflicted with painful boils on his skin. His friends blamed him for all of these hardships. Despite ALL of this, Job understood that God had a plan. God had not forsaken him. God was still there in control of everything. 

The bridge for the song "Blessed Be Your Name" goes like this: You give and take away, You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, LORD, blessed be Your name! Joy is a choice. And sometimes it is not an easy choice at all. It is easy to be happy and joyful when life is good, when everything is working out, and when you aren't experiencing hardships. But how easy is it to rejoice in the Lord when life is handing us lemons? When we get bad news, when we lose a loved one, when we are struggling with an addiction, when we are alone and afraid? How easy is it to feel true joy in moments like that? It's not easy. But we choose to do it anyway. We actively choose to feel joy in the Lord. Because all that we are given is a gift from Him. As Lord of the universe, He has the power and the right to take it all away. We are not entitled to anything. 

Paul writes in Philippians 4:4 (NIV), "Rejoice in the LORD always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" The fact that Paul repeats himself shows us how important it is to rejoice. Notice that Paul doesn't say to rejoice when everything is going great for us. He says to always, always, always rejoice. No matter what! Whatever life is throwing at you right now, you still need to raise your hands and say like Job, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. BLESSED be the name of the LORD!" 

I will admit I sometimes struggle with being joyful and with making that choice. There are days when the last thing I want to do is praise the name of Jesus. But I have to remember to do it anyway. Sometimes just saying, "I praise You, Lord" over and over is enough to start changing my heart. Eventually you get to the point where no matter what, you can still praise the Lord. In Nehemiah 8:10, we see Nehemiah telling the people that the joy of the Lord is their strength. When we rejoice in the Lord, He will give us strength to endure and press on.

I challenge all of us, including myself, to actively experience joy in our lives this week. Make that choice to rejoice in the Lord and in His goodness. Whatever you are facing, He is greater. Give Him praise and honor. Let yourself experience true joy. Let it flood into your heart and pour out through your actions, your emotions, your lifestyle. "Rejoice in the LORD always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" 

Orphans and widows

While watching a promo video for her memoir, I heard a profound quote from Katie Davis. "Jesus does not ask that we care for the less fortunate. He demands it." If you are like me, you will have no idea who Katie Davis is. I was searching for a good book to read, and I stumbled across one called Kisses from Katie. In this book, Katie tells her story. Her journey started as a three-week mission trip to Uganda. This turned into a 10-month commitment to teach kindergarten. But God had bigger plans. Now Katie lives in Uganda permanently. Two years ago, at the age of 21, Katie had adopted 14 Ugandan girls. 

James 1:27 says this, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We are mandated to take care of those who are less fortunate than us. It isn't an option. Like Katie says, God demands it of us. 

One of the hardest things for me to remember is that the blessings I have received from God are not my own. The money that I have is only given to me by His grace. In reality, the money is all His. He is just loaning it to me. And you better believe that He is expecting me to use it responsibly. This doesn't mean that I can't use what He has given me for myself in some instances. But He expects me to give back to those who are in need. 

A couple of weeks ago, in my nightly Bible reading, I read through the book of Leviticus. In this book, God commands the Israelites that when they reap the harvest from their fields, they are not to harvest the very edges or pick up what is dropped. Instead, they are to leave what is left over for the poor and needy, so that they may glean what they can to use for food. 

Even though this pertains specifically to the Israelites, I think that this is still very important to Christians today. When we are blessed by God, we are to give some of the excess to the poor. As James says, we are to take care of the widows and orphans. This can be done in a variety of ways. Whether it means making a meal for a family in your community who is struggling, or giving money or groceries to someone to buy food for themselves. Sometimes caring for the poor involves service and not money. Volunteer work is incredibly important. In the bigger cities, this could mean working at a soup kitchen or at a program for kids who need a safe place to go after school. 

In a lot of cases, what some people need the most is just someone to love them. Working at my church's VBS each summer, I see some kids who are incredibly touchy-feely. They snuggle right up to you whenever they can. Especially working with the 3-5 year olds, I get a lot of kids who want to hold my hand or want me to pick them up and hold them. Sometimes I wonder how many of these kids don't get this kind of love at home. It's not always easy to love these kids, though. Sometimes they don't smell the greatest or they are dirty. Sometimes they are noisy and loud and don't want to pay attention. Sometimes they just get on your nerves and press all your buttons. 

But Jesus loves them so much! He loves that snotty-nosed, smelly little kid. He loves the kid that can't sit still and just wants to run around. He loves their smiles and their laughter. He loves their personalities. He loves everything about them! And He tells us that if we love Him, then we will love those He loves. This includes those that we would deem as unlovable. 

I saw a lot of these kinds of kids when I was in Peru. In the jungle village of Pilcopata where we stayed for a week, we saw so many kids who were not able to bathe often, if at all. They often smell really bad. Some of these kids had lice in their hair or swollen bellies from parasites. Receiving a prize of toothpaste or a bar of soap was truly a reward for them. These were luxuries that some of them couldn't afford. I will tell you what, though, these kids were some of the cutest kids I have ever seen. Their laughter was infectious. They would sing praises to Jesus loudly and unashamedly. 

We have a lot to learn from those who are less fortunate. Many times these people know what is truly important in life. It's not money or food, but friendship, family and faith. If we trust in God and choose to follow Him, He will provide the rest. And often these provisions come from other Christians, giving from their excess, following the call of God to care for the needy. 

Giving out of the goodness of your heart is a blessing in itself, though. There is no feeling like the one you get from giving to other people. To see joy and relief on someone's face is heart-warming. It truly is better to give than receive. I sometimes wish that I had lots of money just so I could help those in need. I just want to make people happy. I don't want people to have to worry about what they are going to eat or how they are going to provide for their families. I want to bless others in the same way that I myself have been blessed. 

My advice would be to start off small. Start by doing one little act of giving to someone else. This could mean paying for the meal of someone behind you in line at a fast food restaurant. Or leaving a gift card in the mailbox for your mailman. Or donating some canned food to your local food bank. It doesn't have to be something big. And you never know how far God can take your small donation. You don't know what someone is facing today. Your act of kindness could mean the world to them. Start small and work your way up to the big things. 

When you give with a willing spirit, you will find yourself being blessed above and beyond what you had known before. God will reward you for your actions. When we love and care for other people, we experience the love of God in bigger ways. We are blessed when we bless others. 

As a final word, I challenge you to go through your Bible and pick out all the verses that talk about taking care of the poor. There are so many verses pertaining to this. God must really think it is important.