GospelDrivenLife

90 Days of Joy: The Lord of Gladness

Most surprising to me in my reflections on joy was the notion that God is joyous.  That seems beneath him.  That seems to make him into a cold hearted God, indifferent to the sufferings of this world.  Jesus was, after all, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.

Hymnology provided a phrase that captivated me.  From the seventeenth century hymn, "Jesus Priceless Treasure", comes the thought, "Banish then all sadness, for the Lord of gladness, Jesus, enters in." 

The writer knew suffering beyond our 2009 fare. For though we share the usual round of human adversity, we live in homes and go about in a style that not even kings of that era enjoyed. Out of a daily life of difficulty, he spoke of the presence of Lord of gladness -- and his presence banishing all sadness.  He tells us that Jesus, where present and when trusted, is like the sun burning away the fog of despair.

This still seemed to me to be far fetched -- how can God be glad when the world is so full of sin?

More help came.  John Piper writes of the happiness of God.  What he means is that God is working everything according to his plan and everything is on course.  Therefore he is happy.  He delights in his perfect wisdom and desires being executed.  But still, this sort of gladness seemed to make me a pawn in the plan.

Then I came across Lewis' masterful The Great Divorce. It trumpets joy as the inheritance of heaven.  Lewis was drawn to Christ through a quest for joy, and it seems he had a grace given insight into the matter.  As is often the case, poets use pictures to brighten what theologians mumble about.  Chapter after chapter painted joy with bold and artistic colors. 

Then came the key thought: how can there be joy in heaven while so many perish?  Ah, I thought, that is exactly my question?  How can God be joyful when there are people dying in sin -- and he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked? How can I be joyful when my own sin, and the sin and suffering of people around me, abounds?

Lewis answer is bold and clear.  He writes that this is "the demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe."  Wow, joylessness was rebellion.  It is a demand, says he, by the rebels "that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy; that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto heaven."

I can see myself, the pouting child, blackmailing the family at diner until I get my way. 

Then Lewis gets to the bottom line: "either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it; or else forever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves."

There it was.  God was joyous in the face of our rebellion because God will not be held hostage by our sin.  It does not mean he does not grieve for our sin, only that our stubborn rejection of the good which He is will not quench his joy. Jesus is the Lord of gladness, who went about offering his joy to all who would come, who wept that many would not come, but whose joy was unpolluted by our sin.

That sort of joy in that sort of Savior was intoxicating, humbling, and elevating. . . .  and needed to be applied

90 Days of Joy

This has been a wondrous year of grace to me, our family, and our church.  At the center of it all was a 3 month journey for my heart.

Melancholy has been a consistent pattern of my life, and more so as I have moved deeper into mid-life.  I have been aware, at times, of a groundnote of sadness.  This last summer, two weeks before the wedding of our youngest, I was headed to bed, getting ready to pray with my wife, when the Lord said, "I want to heal your sadness with joy."  Well, it was not audible, but it was clear. And with it the Spirit brought to mind a book long forgotten -- Champagne for the Soul by Mike Mason. Mason wrote the best book ever on marriage many many years ago -- it is gloriously impractical and poetic (The Mystery of Marriage), even if deficient in some areas.  But I digress.

Mason put together 90 days of short readings on the theme of joy. God directed me to do this -- for the 90 days -- and not to do anything else devotionally.  I balked.  I always have a list of 3 or 4 things to do devotionally and I rarely can focus on one thing for more than two weeks.  90 days?  One book? On joy?  What can possibly be said about joy for 90 days? 

But God was good and grace sustained me -- and for 90 days I drank the champagne.  Was I ever wrong!  The Scriptures are full of joy and our God is a joyous God.  Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. Heaven is a world of joy. If I am abiding in Christ, then I will know his joy.  If I am dour and sad and super serious and endlessly self-analyzing -- then I must not be in communion with the God of joy. My seriousness is more about abiding in my own seriousness.  It seemed that I thought I could be walking with Christ and be, as one author put it, as humorless as a chicken (ever see one smile?).

Since then I have read and re-read C S Lewis The Great Divorce and heard his marvelous development of the joys of glory -- and the sinful resistance to joy that is in my soul.  How many times the Lord invites us all into his joy -- and we shall enter his joy forever on that last day.

I am sure I should qualify this recommendation -- yes, I am aware that Lewis was Anglican, held some unusual views here and there -- yes, I am aware Mason is not as Gospel centered or as orthodox in every word as I might like.  But if I let those get in the way of my reading and benefiting from these two works, well, that would be sad. . . .

I still tend to be the Puddleglum of the family, but there has been a taste of the Lord's joy -- and it is a gift of grace purchased through the cross.  I am so grateful for a taste of joy unspeakable and full of glory.