Sheltering with Defiant Joy!

There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other. ~Augustine

God's plan for all of us includes joy.  Have you ever met someone who is joyless -- the person who seems to find something negative in the best of blessings.  The one who says, "I can get a splinter sliding down the curve of a rainbow."

My mother is a joyous woman.  I never thought about it when I was young -- these things escape children because joy is taken for granted.  But as I have matured, I've watched her experience some tough situations.  Life things, physical problems, losing her mother, two grandbabies, a son-in-law, a best friend, and other pains of life.  Yet what I remember is the joy.

I think of my Heavenly Father and His joy.  Then I know why my mother is so joyful.  She knows grace.  God's grace -- the grace that is born out of God's joy.

Nehemiah shared that "the joy of the Lord is our strength."  Is it any surprise that those who live without joy merely seem to spin their wheels, accomplishing nothing, encouraging nobody and denying our joyous God the offer of exchanging their hurts for joy?

In 1871, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon titled, The Joy of the Lord, The Strength of His People. Spurgeon said, "He is a God who cannot lie, faithful and true to his promise; he is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy. Why, the contemplation of God to one who knows that this God is his God for ever and ever, is enough to make the eyes overflow with tears, because of the deep, mysterious, unutterable bliss which fills the heart."

Over 100 years later my own eyes overflow because of the same unutterable bliss that fills my soul when I contemplate my God who cannot lie, faithful and true to his promise; he is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy.

But what happens when we're living life?  When the stock market fails or illness strikes?  "Joy in this world," says John Ortburg, "is almost always a joy in spite of something.  It's a defiant joy."  George Matheson expressed it well:

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

Habakkuk knew about that defiant joy.  He said,

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.

I want that defiant joy.  

Though the van was totaled and the work car blew a tire, though my body is tired and pain dodges my steps, our soldiers are killed protecting our country and the Dow keeps losing points, yet will I rejoice in the Lord.  I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  GOD, the Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.

Joy, defiant joy. The joy I see encased in a bubble shining with the colors of the rainbow. The joy my mother demonstrated.  The joy flowing from my Heavenly Father.  

Linked to:

Spiritual Sunday
Playdates with God
Soli Deo Gloria
Encouraging Words Tuesday