Joy Isn't Just for Christmas

by Hannah Clements

I have a confession: I love me some Jesus, but I’m not a fan of Christmas music. When The Collective Christmas music writing theme came up, I jokingly suggested that I would get my writing inspiration from Mariah Carey's “All I Want For Christmas is You”. It is one of my favorites on the short list of favorites. My daughter on the other hand loves Christmas music. The faster, louder, jinglier, and catchy the better in her opinion. While listening to music with her, Mariah Carey's song came on. “All I want for Christmas...Santa Claus can’t make me happy with a toy on Christmas day...all I want is you”...that must certainly be a Jesus song right?” my 8 year old daughter said. In her kid-wisdom and childlike faith, she knows that Jesus is the reason for the season. Gifts don’t bring us joy. What we should really want is Jesus. And she is right, Jesus is really all I want for Christmas (except maybe socks, underwear and would it be too much if I asked for a Roomba?). His presence unfailingly brings me comfort and joy. I couldn't ask for more.

Although Christmas songs aren’t my favorite, Hallelujah Christmas always gets me because it doesn't stop at the birth it sings of the cross and the cross for ever changed me. However this year, I just need to listen to the first line, and I am a mess.

The song starts with “I heard about this baby boy whose come to earth to bring us joy.” The joy of Jesus has a whole new meaning for my husband and I this year. We recently gave our newly adopted daughter the middle name of Joy. She is so proud to have this name. We are prayerful and convinced that her name will be part of her testimony and a reminder to how God changed her sorrow to joy. (Her original middle name meant “sorrow”.)  She is delighted whenever she reads or hears the word “joy” anywhere. “They just said my name,” she says smiling with dimples shining. She takes notes of any mention of the word. For example, our pastor said “joy” exactly 12 times in his sermon last Sunday. I know because she counted and celebrated with each mention. Her new name has made us all pay more attention to the word “joy”. I always knew it was a Christmas word - frequently posted on Christmas signs, decorations, cards and ornaments. However, until this year, I didn’t stop to think about why “joy” is a Christmas word.

In Luke 2:10, the angel of the Lord announces the birth of our Saviour to shepherds in the field. The angel says “"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Tiny summary - Jesus causes great joy. 

Joy really isn’t just a positive or pretty word to paste on our Christmas ornaments. It is a testament of Jesus’s presence in Bethlehem and in our lives. And it doesn't stop at Christmas. Joy should be posted and felt throughout the year because the joy of Jesus is present on our happiest holidays and our most mundane Mondays. 

We have tried to teach our daughter the meaning of the word “joy”. “Joy is different than happiness,” we say. New socks and underwear would bring me happiness, but the happiness will surely not last and neither will the socks as they are my dogs favorite thing to eat. As I type this the tire place has stolen my happiness and my patience, but it can't steal my joy. Joy is not circumstantial. It can’t be stolen or destroyed. In fact there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God (Romans 10:35-39).

Fellow believers, may we be a people who not only seek the joy of God during the Christmas season but also throughout the entire year. May we carry God's joy with us to the tire place and into our mundane Mondays. May we remember that our bad circumstances are fleeting. But the joy of the Lord is eternal. 


Dear Lord,

Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the joy that comes with Your presence. Thank you for my long awaited daughter. May we take your joy in to the new year.

Let it be so.

*******


Dear Readers,

We sincerely hope you had a special Christmas season. We wish you a Happy New Year! Full of Jesus and joy.

Love,

The Collective

Happiness is the Truth

by Jamie Gunter

Ya’ll. I may sound crazy, but lately I have been thinking about being happy. Not really whether or not I should be happy but what, exactly, that means. Is it a feeling or something circumstantial or… more?

If you were like me a couple of years ago, you were overjoyed to hear a new song that was simple, catchy, and happy. Actually, the title is literally “Happy.” Pharrell Williams may not have meant to insert a profound statement but it’s in there…  “Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.” I didn’t think about it then but it struck me this week- there it is- happiness is the TRUTH. I think he was on to something.

One of the wonderful things about having trials and sufferings in life is that you gain perspective and understanding. At the time our baby boy died I had been in a period of suffering and grief for months, and then it was deepened tenfold. In the midst of this immeasurable pain was immeasurable mercy and love, and with it came peace and… joy. Not the kind of joy that makes you smile a lot and giggle and feel fuzzy, but the understanding that there was a protection over me, a hedge around my heart and hope in an abiding love. I knew joy unmatched awaited where my son had gone, and one day I would get there too. In our trials, James tells us to count it joy (happiness) because our trials grow our faith. I was able to count my suffering as joy because I was given an opportunity to cling closer to Jesus, the One who is truth, and goodness, and mercy, and love, and JOY. Glorifying Him in my trial gave me joy because my life was meant to do just that- I was living out my purpose.

In his book “When I Don’t Desire God” John Piper says,“Seeing the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel awakens joy. And joy in Christ magnifies his worth. That is why Satan aims chiefly at blinding us from seeing Christ for who he is. He hates to see Christ honored. And Christ is mightily honored when the sight of his glory gives rise to the kind of gladness that cuts the nerve of sin and causes radical sacrifice in the cause of the gospel.”

I think we sometimes get caught up in thinking that happiness comes in moments, feelings, and circumstances. True joy comes by pursuing the One who created it. God wants us to have joy- in Galatians it is actually named a fruit of the spirit for those who profess to follow Christ. Sometimes that joy is a tearful, hard fought fight through tough circumstances and sometimes that joy is simple and lighthearted.

Whatever your trial or circumstance, may you cling to the One who promised to sustain you and endured the cross because of the joy that was to come.

. . . looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Hebrews 12:2

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. 

Psalm 43:4

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.