On a recent Sunday, prior to the observance of communion, my pastor, Stephen Clyborne of Earle Street Baptist Church in Greenville, preached on joy – a fruit of the Spirit that is dependent on a right relationship with God rather than on the circumstances of our lives.
KirklandI called him later in the day to say how much his message meant to my family. I told him my family had talked about it around the Sunday dinner table. I asked if he minded my sharing it with others in the Courier. He said yes, if it would be helpful to our readers. I assured him it would. So, here it is, based on Galatians 5:22:
Wendell Berry tells the story of Andy Catlett, the character for whom his novel is named, who lost his right hand in a tragic farm accident. In the novel, Andy Catlett kept hearing these words:
He is held, though he does not hold.
Though he does not hold, he is held.
He is grieving, and he is full of joy.
Grieving, but full of joy. How is that possible? How can we live in a fallen, broken world, and still have joy? Well, we might begin by unpacking that little three-letter word.
Many of us are inclined to confuse joy with happiness. And they are not the same. We may use those words synonymously and interchangeably, but there is a qualitative and substantive difference. The Bible really never uses the word “happy,” at least the way we use the word. When the word “happy” appears in an English translation of the Bible, it is a translation of a Hebrew or Greek word which means “blessed.” It carries with it the idea of God’s favor which rests upon people who reflect something of God’s character. But it is nothing like the way we use the word “happy.”
ClyborneMany of us talk about happiness in terms of our circumstances. We are not happy yet, but we could be if – or we will be when?-?. Listen to the way many of us talk. We convince ourselves that we will be happy if and when all the pieces of our lives fall into place. We will be happy once we finish school, or get the right job. We will be happy if we can just find the right person with whom to share our lives. We will be happy once we have children, or once they get potty-trained, or once they get through the terrible twos. But then they grow into teenagers, and we think we will be happy once they get through school. We tell ourselves that we could be happy if our spouse would just get his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation. Surely, we will be happy when we retire. On and on we go, postponing happiness, and always making it dependent on our circumstances.
As Frederick Buechner says, “Happiness turns up more or less where you’d expect it to.” But joy can turn up where we least expect it. Joy is not so much the absence of suffering. It is the presence of God in the midst of suffering. When the seed of the Spirit’s presence within us takes root, the fruit it produces will be consistent with the nature of the seed. So Paul writes, “The fruit of the Spirit is – joy.”
By its very definition, real joy that comes to us and through us as a fruit of God’s own seed within us cannot be postponed. Life is passing us by. As James wrote, life is a vapor, a mist that appears for a short time and then vanishes – here today and gone tomorrow. If you do not find joy now, you may never find it.
Real joy is not dependent upon a carefree life. It may be experienced in the midst of the sorrow of life. So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose 10 pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until you get a new car or a new home, until your home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until winter, until fall, until the first or the 15th of the month, until your life gets perfect.
Whatever else joy is, it is now. Joy is the awareness of being held by God’s love even when we cannot hold on to God. It is learning with Paul to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.
On the night before He was to be crucified, Jesus gathered with His disciples around a table to share a meal with them. During their table talk, Jesus warned them of the events that were about to unfold. He was about to leave them, and their world was about to be turned upside down and inside out. Everything that they thought was nailed down would start coming loose. He was going to be put to death; and if they remained faithful to Him, they would be in danger themselves.
Sensing their sorrow and anxiety, Jesus said something that appears very strange, unless you understand the nature of true joy: As your world begins to fall apart, “your hearts will rejoice, and no one will be able to take your joy from you.”
The world offers us happiness, and the world can take it away from us as quickly as it gives it to us. But true joy, unlike happiness, does not come from the world or the things in it. It comes as a fruit of the Spirit of the living God within us. And since the world does not give it, the world cannot take it away.
We are held, even when we do not hold.
Even when we do not hold, we are held.
We are grieving, and we are full of joy.