Make Sure Your Joy is Safe
By Michael Kelley
In Philippians 4:4, Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always. And in case we missed it the first time, he tells us again: Rejoice!”
Some days it feels possible to live like that. Those are the good days. Everyone is safe. Everyone is healthy. Everyone is generally prosperous. Good days indeed. But those are not most days.
Most days, we look for an exception in Paul’s words. We want Philippians 4:4 to say, “Rejoice in the Lord… mostly.” As it stands, however, the text does not leave us that option. We are to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. The “always” is what makes it a struggle, and perhaps not just a struggle, but actually offensive.
You might well be in the midst of a sad season. A painful season. A season in which it feels like work just to get out of bed in the morning. And if you are, this verse is the equivalent of getting a mass-produced greeting card in the mail whose front cover reads, “With Sympathy,” and on the inside has a hand-written message that reads, “Try and look on the bright side!”
How do you deal with such an air-tight command to rejoice in seasons like that?
The first way is to recognize that rejoicing in the Lord does not mean ceasing to be sad. By way of example, consider the shortest verse in the entire Bible: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Standing at the tomb of His friend, Lazarus, dead for days, and knowing He would soon turn the funeral into a party, Jesus wept. And in so doing, be comforts us because with His tears, Jesus validates our sadness. If the Son of God felt sad, then who are we to think ourselves above doing so ourselves?
So whatever this unconditional rejoicing is, it does not mean the absence of sadness or grief. In fact, these two things fit together. Is this not what we experience every time we go to the funeral of a beloved saint who has gone to be with the Lord?
The key to understanding and embracing the unconditional rejoicing Paul prescribes comes in the fact that we are to rejoice always “in the Lord.”
It’s important that we make a distinction between joy and happiness. Joy is active; happiness is passive. Put another way, happiness happens to you while joy is something you choose. That’s because happiness is related to your circumstances, but true rejoicing comes “in the Lord.”
Put still another way, happiness is an emotion to be experienced; rejoicing is a command to be obeyed.
Rejoicing in the Lord, then, is not giving thanks for favorable circumstances in our lives; it is instead choosing to find your greatest source of joy, your greatest source of satisfaction, and your greatest source of contentment in Jesus. While everything else in the world can change in the blink of an eye, Jesus never does. That means, among other things, that when you rejoice in the Lord you are putting your joy in a safe place. It’s a place that cannot be touched by the shifting sands of circumstance.
The charge of unconditional rejoicing, then, is an opportunity for self-examination. It’s a chance examine your own life and ask the question of where exactly you have invested your own joy. Your own satisfaction. Your own contentment. Is it in things that will change? Is it circumstantial? Or is it in the Lord, where it is safe?
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
