Joy in Uncertainty…
To say that I was a happy kid when I was younger was an understatement. Like anyone listening to their parents recount their younger years, I’ve learned to laugh as they share about some of my early childhood antics.
“You were my ray of sunshine,” my mom would often recount warmly with that distant look in her eyes. I knew she was imagining that huge goofy grin of mine staring back at her.
Where’s the beef?
As the youngest of three boys, I was the early riser that was “bright eyed and bushy tailed”. Story has it that I used to wake up at the break of dawn and stomp around the house singing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” - at the top of my lungs.
As far as I was concerned, I had a bed to sleep in, food to eat and epic make-believe battles to fight in. Armed with a full cap gun and a wild imagination, life was good.
Shockingly, my “joy” wasn’t reciprocated by the rest of the sleeping household at 6am. “Oh well, maybe tomorrow,” I’d think to myself.
Whether you’ve considered yourself a “joyful” person or not, life has the propensity to slowly erode the shoreline of our joy. The more we live life, the more we experience the challenges and pain that accompany living in a world marred by sin and brokenness.
Stress, anxiety and fear can take the wind out of our sails and leave us feeling withered inside. When the losses of life come at us faster than we have the capacity to process, it can feel like a losing Tetris game. In grief work we call this “compounding loss”.
So how do we recapture our joy when our circumstances have our stomach tied up in knots? How do we find Joy in the midst of uncertainty?
Psalm 30 serves as a beacon of light when the storms rage around us:
1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.
3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit.
4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”
7 Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.
8 To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.”
11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.
The honesty and vulnerability that David writes with is so refreshing! Psalms like this breathe hope into my soul because it normalizes the ebbs and flow of life.
Additionally, passages like this remind us that there is more going on behind the scenes than just the part we play. God is actively at work, moving and working. He is lifting us out of the depths, helping and healing us, granting us his favor, mercy, and… His joy. Joy is a gift.
As we see our challenges reflected in passages like this, it helps us rediscover our Joy because it reminds us that though “weeping may stay for the night” it will not last forever. Joy comes in the morning.
In this advent season, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are reminded that God takes our lament and turns it into dancing. He removes our clothes of mourning and clothes us with Joy! It’s through Christ that God will take all of the pain we’ve experienced and “reconcile to himself all things.” (Colossians 1).
We may not have had a choice in the challenges that we face, but we do have a choice in where we turn for hope, peace and joy. In Christ, may we turn to Him expectantly and be clothed with Joy.
