Finding Joy in a Season of Suffering
Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash
“Always be joyful.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NLT)
“[Jesus] is with us because of a love beyond our comprehension, and it is only through our own love that we are able to know him at all. And it isn’t even our own love; it is Jesus’ love expressed through us.
So what has happened to us?
Why are we not alive with joy?”
Madeleine L’Engle
“But what…of joy?...It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer.”
C.S. Lewis
Given all that 2020 has brought us, talk of joy might feel like a cruel joke or something simply unrealistic. America’s troubled relationship with race erupted once again with the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, leading to months of social unrest across the nation. A chaotic, tense presidential election has fractured our national discourse and even caused division within personal relationships. The COVID-19 pandemic is raging on, infecting record numbers in the United States and continuing its worldwide rampage. The fallout from the pandemic has also taken a significant toll in myriad other ways: mental health crises, suicide, substance use, economic collapse, domestic violence, divorce, and child abuse are just some of the social ills that have rapidly increased this year. We clergy and ministry leaders have had to face situations for which no seminary course could have prepared us; as a result, burnout is increasing exponentially. How can we be joyful? In this frightening moment, how can we heed the inspired words of St. Paul and “always be joyful?”
The Scriptures are replete with references to joy. The Psalmist speaks of joy being an impetus for praise (Ps. 71:23); Mary was filled with joy at being the bearer of the Christ-child (Lk. 1:47). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), and the theme of joy composes a significant portion of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The author of Hebrews writes this of Jesus: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). In other words, joy undergirds the story of redemption and is foundational for the Christian life! The Scriptural witness is clear: as children of God, joy is our birthright, a proper expression of Spirit-filled faith.
For those of us who adhere to the Christian calendar, yesterday was Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. Gaudete is Latin for “rejoice,” and is the first word of the introit that begins the mass on this day. Celebration of Gaudete Sunday has been incorporated into the Protestant liturgical calendar after the great ecumenical liturgical reforms of the 20th century, with numerous denominations officially marking this celebration. The season of Advent is somewhat of a penitential season, serving as a counterpart to Lent. It is a time during which Christians adopt an introspective, disciplined attitude as we watch and wait for the light to pierce the darkness, as we grapple with living as an “in-between” people, believers who live on this side of Jesus’ birth and long for the day when “he shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead.” The third Sunday of Advent, then, is a moment of rejoicing in a season of dark anticipation, because even though we, like the people of Israel in Isaiah’s day, live as strangers in a strange land and long for our liberation, the promised Messiah is coming.
The persistent question Madeleine L’Engle posed in her marvelous Advent-themed book, Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation, nags at me this Advent season, perhaps more incessantly than any Advent of recent memory: why are we not alive with joy? I want to offer some foundational truths I believe can lead Christians into a lifestyle of joy. I submit that joy is two-fold: it is an experience intended to draw us more closely to the Triune God, and it is an overflow of life in the Holy Spirit, profitable for individual edification and for building up the body of Christ, a most appropriate and fitting response to God’s gracious activity in our lives.
Joy finds its meaning and purpose when it is anchored in the love of God. An examination of joy must begin with establishing its proper biblical context. Rather than simply being an emotional reaction to one’s situation, joy is a deliberate choice. The Bible is clear in its teaching that joy is an internal response to an external set of circumstances. It is a decision to find contentment, fulfilment, and even happiness first and foremost in God and his great love for us, rather than any earthly entity or relationship. It is because St. Paul cultivated joy in his own life that he was able to write the following to the church in Rome: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us… And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:18, 28).
Believers are promised that any trouble we face—a pandemic, racial unrest, political turmoil, family conflict—is ultimately taken up into the divine life where there is abundant grace and mercy. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all difficulty abates or that we are given neat, tidy answers to life’s persistent hardships. Rather, it means that we can echo St. Paul’s words to the church in Philippi: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Joy allows us to thrive no matter our condition, because we know who we are and Whose we are.
Consider the full context of Madeleine L’Engle’s quote. She ties joy to the love of Jesus, a love by which everything is illuminated and through which we ourselves are able to love and be loved. What is more life-giving and sustaining than the love of Jesus? This love is the foundation upon which joy is built!
Joy is not an end; it is a means. Joy can function as a “signpost”; that is, joy is meant to point us to someone or something beyond ourselves. In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis writes of joy as “distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing." Lewis ties joy to sehnsucht (German for “longing”) and portrays this as an inner, indescribable yet palpable urge for the ineffable, often experienced in moments of encounter with transcendence and beauty.
Lewis eventually found that those moments of joy were pointing to a real, personal God. He renounced atheism for theism and eventually embraced the Christian faith. At the very end of this account of his early life, Lewis wrote this about the role of joy in pointing him to God:
When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, ‘Look!’ The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold.
Lewis discovered that these moments of joy were always functioning as signposts to the God who wanted to know him. Joy is not the thing itself; it is not the culmination of our longings or the destination of our journey. Joy points us to its Giver. When we are attentive to our own moments of joy, we just might find it is meant to open us more fully to God and his divine purposes.
Joy is our response to what the Triune God has done. While joy can often be a means through which we are drawn closer to God, joy is also intended to function as doxology, our song of praise to the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. We respond joyfully because of our position in Christ. Because of his atoning work on the cross, we are a new creation, and we have been given the indwelling Holy Spirit who lavishes gifts upon us for the advancement of his Kingdom.
Consider this bit from the letter to the church in Rome: "For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Rom. 5:10-11). Our great salvation is cause for joy! Our position has been fundamentally changed. Once we were enemies, separated from God; now, we have been reconciled. Christ’s death allows for our life, and this truth should orient us to a life of joyful praise.
St. Paul continues in Romans chapter 8: "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Two truths jump out from these verses that relate to what God has done on humanity’s behalf: 1) the Holy Spirit that resides in believers testifies to the truth of adoption into the body of Christ, ensuring us of our position; and 2) adoption into God’s family also means that, despite any present suffering, we are assured of eternal reward. These truths mean that joy is possible even as “we share in his sufferings.”
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit; that is, when we express joy, we make evident that God’s Spirit is leading and guiding us. It is one way we testify that we “belong to Christ Jesus [and] have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). Perhaps you need to rediscover joy, to be surprised by it once again. God’s Spirit will lead you. Remember the promise of Advent: Christ has come that we might have joy. And, when he comes again in glory, may we greet him with joyful praise. Alleluia! Amen.
Rev. Dr. Evan Rohrs-Dodge is the senior pastor of Belvidere United Methodist Church in Belvidere, NJ. He is a member the Editorial Board for Firebrand.