Consider it Joy (to the World)

This is the season of joy, right?

Joy to the World! The Lord has come! 

Good tidings of comfort of joy! 

But what if, during the Season of Joy, I feel anything but joyful? What if life has thrown me a curve ball and the unexpected or the unwelcome has happened? What if the joy in my heart has faded?

If you're anything like me you've walked through these times of joylessness. We realize during these times that joy isn't vital to brainwaves and heartbeats, but joy is vital to living the way God intends us to live. We are called to abundant, joyful lives as Jesus tells us in John 10.

Oh, Lord. The circumstances of life have taken my joy. The path You have called me to walk brings a sorrow to my life. So what do I do with the darkness and pain You've let me encounter?

Beloved, consider it joy.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

Or, as the Message version translates it:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Here's the thing: we don't always get to pick the paths we walk down in life. God directs our paths and these paths are not always well-paved and peaceful. Sometimes the path God chooses for us seems dark and painful. Sometimes the Way is not the way we would choose for ourselves.

But it's not our call. Isaiah 30 tells us that even when we "eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of affliction", His presence will be with us saying, "This is the way, walk in it."

So maybe God has called you down a bramble and thorn-filled path, but we are to consider it joy, a gift. We are to rejoice in our troubles because God is using them for good. God uses our troubles to make us better, to refine us.

This path, friend, counts for something. Your pain, your sorrow, your loss. It means something. God loves you enough to make you uncomfortable. He loves you enough to lead you through the valleys, so your mountaintops will be sweeter.

I don't pretend to know why God has asked you to walk through your particular trial. But I do know that your trial is very precious in the sight of God. I know that He has promised to walk with you through it.

I also know He has told you to rejoice and have joy in your trial. Your trail will deepen your faith and deepen your need for Him. 

And when the road is finished and the time of darkness has passed, you will have been shaped into a new and better version of yourself. A version that does not depend on circumstances for your joy. Instead you'll be someone who finds joy in one place and one place alone. 

Because, as the song says, the moment the Lord came, angels declared joy to the world. Our joy, true and deep and real joy, comes from Jesus alone. 

So, consider it joy, friends. Consider the path He has called you to walk as joy. Each sad and painful step will lead you closer to Jesus.

And knowing Jesus is knowing the best kind of joy there is.