Let the eternal Truth be your sole and supreme joy.
-Thomas A Kempis
This morning our water heater was not doing its job of heating water. Now, what can be worse than a cold shower? My initial reaction was to complain. However, before the complaint escaped, I thought of my daughter’s last email from Papua New Guinea. She shared the joys of bucket showers. Bucket showers do not sound like hot showers. In fact, they sound rather cold. And, if I were in Papua New Guinea or some other foreign field, I would probably not bemoan the experience of a cold shower. The adventure of it would be just one more delight.
After my cold shower, my quiet time reading from The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges found me in the chapter of Joy. Joy. It is an emotion that often evades us in our North American culture. We are too accustomed to lamenting about how life should be rather than rejoicing in how life is. Doubt, worry, and despair weigh us down with heavy hearts and we become discouraged. Murmuring becomes a way of life.
But this is not the life God would have for us. Hebrews 12:1 calls to lay aside those weights of discouragement that encumber us and to run the race with endurance. Laying aside those weights frees us to run with delight. The joy we experience gives us the strength to continue moving forward. Joy comes in part by laying aside weights, but real and full joy comes from our focus. We are to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He and the life He has given us bring real and abiding joy. In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)
Jerry Bridges reminds us, “We can go through life bored, glum, and complaining, or we can rejoice in the Lord, in our names being written in heaven, in the hope of an eternal inheritance. It is both our privilege and our duty to be joyful. To be joyless is to dishonor God and to deny His love and His control over our lives. To be joyful is to experience the power of the Holy Spirit within us and to say to a watching world, “Our God reigns.”
