Joy - Sabbath Week Four
Welp, I'm now officially a million weeks behind on these sabbath sketches, but I guess that's not the main point. (or at least, if it is the main point, that would be a really boring and self-centered blog post!).
Moving on....
JOY! all caps, no holds barred, no excuses, all in. Joy is an emotional state with a rep. It's the enneagram 7, the gregarious hostess with charming anecdotes, the thrill of momentum realized as the climbing coaster arcs into the free fall. It's an emotion that comes with an image. Joy is often (if not ubiquitously) seen as a positive emotion and desired state. It's a prayed for emotion, a longed for emotion, an elusive emotion, a seemingly fickle emotion. And yet, as many who grow up in the church know, joy is included in the list of the fruit of the spirit. It's taught rather widely in church (from what I know, anyway) that happiness and joy are different. That happiness is fleeting, while joy is sustained through Christ.
But, really, what does this mean? Has anyone achieved that kind of joy? I mean, sometimes... but it still seems like kind of an elusive state. Like, we "know" we're supposed to be joyful and so we settle for faithful when we can muster it, and trudge on until the state of our hearts catches up.
Yeah, yeah, I'm capitalizing on my cynicism here... but mainly because cynical is exactly the state I found myself stuck in last Sunday, when my focus was supposed to be on joy. I was in one of my moods, like a kid home-grown in the sour patch. I could have been given a check for a million dollars and remained unfazed in my surly resolve. It was a sad sight to behold.
How, in a state like this, does one find joy? Or create it? Or cultivate it? or whatever the metaphor should be...
I think joy—fruit of the spirit joy—might be similar to the other listed characteristics: a gift and a blessing to be sure, but more often than not it is more of a call and a responsibility. Joy falls among brothers of gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, all of which I usually associate with intentionality, effort, and practice.
Moving on....
JOY! all caps, no holds barred, no excuses, all in. Joy is an emotional state with a rep. It's the enneagram 7, the gregarious hostess with charming anecdotes, the thrill of momentum realized as the climbing coaster arcs into the free fall. It's an emotion that comes with an image. Joy is often (if not ubiquitously) seen as a positive emotion and desired state. It's a prayed for emotion, a longed for emotion, an elusive emotion, a seemingly fickle emotion. And yet, as many who grow up in the church know, joy is included in the list of the fruit of the spirit. It's taught rather widely in church (from what I know, anyway) that happiness and joy are different. That happiness is fleeting, while joy is sustained through Christ.
But, really, what does this mean? Has anyone achieved that kind of joy? I mean, sometimes... but it still seems like kind of an elusive state. Like, we "know" we're supposed to be joyful and so we settle for faithful when we can muster it, and trudge on until the state of our hearts catches up.
Yeah, yeah, I'm capitalizing on my cynicism here... but mainly because cynical is exactly the state I found myself stuck in last Sunday, when my focus was supposed to be on joy. I was in one of my moods, like a kid home-grown in the sour patch. I could have been given a check for a million dollars and remained unfazed in my surly resolve. It was a sad sight to behold.
How, in a state like this, does one find joy? Or create it? Or cultivate it? or whatever the metaphor should be...
I think joy—fruit of the spirit joy—might be similar to the other listed characteristics: a gift and a blessing to be sure, but more often than not it is more of a call and a responsibility. Joy falls among brothers of gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, all of which I usually associate with intentionality, effort, and practice.
John MacArthur compares the pursuit of joy to be inextricably linked to the pursuit of knowledge and confidence in the goodness of God.
"The more you know Him, the better you know Him, the more confident you become, the more secure your joy is… Joy is related to your knowledge of God: little knowledge, little joy; much knowledge, much joy. The more you know of God’s glorious truth, of God’s great covenants and promises, of God’s plans, of God’s faithfulness, of God’s power, the more joy you experience in life… Our joy is connected to the goodness of the Lord. And the more you understand His grace and mercy and goodness, the more stable your joy becomes, no matter what circumstances may come."
So yes, joy is a gift indeed, but a mission even more so.
Sabbath, in addition to being a "holy" tradition, is also a "wholly" tradition, if you will. It is God's personal stamp of completeness, finishing touch, and proclamation of fruition. It is a picture of God's rest, not from being depleted in energy, but from being full of joy and celebration of what He purposed and created. God "ceased" after 6 days of work (the Hebrew word there is a form of the verb shabbat, and it means to "full stop," cease, and finish). Once He had "ceased" God "planted" the man and woman in the garden to "rest" in it and work it. The word there for planted or placed is "nuakh." This word is where the name "Noah" is derived. Noah, if you're familiar with name etiology, means "repose" or "comfort" or "peaceful rest" or "to settle in." It's kind of like coming home after a long Monday, pulling a warm blanket over your tired body, and sipping your favorite tea while conversing with a good friend or family member. It's not the "sleeping" kind of rest, it's the satisfying kind of rest. I think of the word "hygge" as a synonym: "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being." (Webster's Dictionary)
Anyway, I could go on, but I digress. The point is, Sabbath is not only "ceasing" in the "stopping" sense, but in the joyful and satisfying sense. It's both a self-denial act to focus on God's provision, and a joyous act of celebrating God's provision. Does any of this make sense? I could include more references, like how God even gives the Land in Israel a Sabbath rest, and an ultimate "mega" rest every 50 or so years (7 cycles of 7 Sabbath years) called the "Jubilee" (literally "yobel" or Ram's horn). It is this idea of Sabbath being a connection of the concepts "completeness" and celebration, gratitude, and "settling in" rest.
I may not be making an exhaustive argument, here, but basically what I'm saying is that to see the Sabbath as self-denial, self-effacing, or ceasing *only* is to miss a big part of what honoring the Sabbath means, not to mention making it about ourselves in our (usually) misguided attempts at modesty and piety.
I'm not sure a good way to wrap up all these loose thoughts, but maybe that's the way they are meant to stay - loose. Ripe for meditation. I think I'll continue to do some meditating myself, on the goodness of God, and in so doing (as MacArthur puts it) stabilize my joy no matter my circumstances.
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