Discovering Joy

I was reading through John Ortberg's "The Life You've Always Wanted" when inevitably I encountered the chapter concerning joy. I've heard a lot about joy and thought it would be a sleep-a-thon when I started reading.

I was right.

However, I did find one thing that got drilled into my head the more and more I thought about it. It was a reference to Psalm 118:24. It's the verse that says "this is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

I'm quite familiar with this verse. Yet, the thing that made it new to me was the fresh way with which the author unpacked the loaded implications of the verse. Today is the day that the Lord has made. Be sure to note that it doesn't say anything along the lines of "Yesterday was God's day...how joyful was then" or "Tomorrow will be the best day ever--until then I'll just have to put up with everything."

The truly challenging implication of this verse is that it forced me to address the fact that my joy won't magically come once my conditions change. Consider the small context:

- Once I FINALLY graduate, will joy start flowing through my life more completely than before?
- Will life be that much more satisfying once I get a new car?

The tie-in to the big context should be obvious by now:

- Will my pleasure be all the more complete if I get to talk to Glorie again?
- Do I begin my celebration only when issues are resolved between my family and the Santos family?


Note that these thoughts do not, by any means, disregard the seriousness of any of the matters. It's important to graduate just as much as it's important to address the "stuff" between my family and hers. However, the truly significant thing to always keep in mind is that those issues are never going to be the beginning of joy. In other words, if joy is going to happen, it must begin today.

All of this said, I find it easy to talk a big game but not so easy to follow through. I can charade around my Christian friends with some mask pretending as if I have all the joy in the world, but what good would that do? The fact of the matter is, I've always found difficulty balancing the reality of the sadness from some things in my life and the joy of knowing Christ.


However, I have discovered something wildly intriguing. In this whirlwind of a journey I have found that the more often I focus on my situation (and thus myself), the more infinite my depression. Hopeless would in fact be the more precise word. On the other hand, the more that I focus on Christ (thus realizing that my life isn't even about me), the more blissful life seems to become. Perhaps it is for this very reason that so many people (in very sad situations) were able to exude pure joy. Elites such as Mother Teresa, St. Paul the apostle, St. Francis of Assisi, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer must have made this connection early on in order to display such elation (despite their daily circumstances). Distilled in its purest form, the truth boils down to a singular question: "Is Christ enough?"

But is He?