Eza 6:16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. (ESV)
God takes pleasure in our taking pleasure in him and his blessings. As a father smiles when he watches his toddler squeal with joy at a new discovery, as a mother beams watching her teenage daughter revel in a new ball gown, so God takes pleasure when we find pleasure in him.
Christians have a way of redefining words to meet their experience. In the process we often destroy the meaning of the words. We tend to redefine fear to mean respect. When we read "fear God" we understand "respect God." We respect the neighbor's property line. We respect our teachers whether we agree with them or not. We respect the flag, but none of those come close to what God means when he says that we are to fear him. By the same token we redefine joy. We say that joy doesn't mean happiness. It doesn't mean pleasure. It means something that we can experience even in the darkest, heaviest times of our lives. Certainly there is truth there, but I suspect that when the Israelis were celebrating the dedication of the new temple they would have had a hard time differentiating between the experience of "joy" and "happiness." The truth is that they were experiencing the emotion that we describe with words like joy, happiness, pleasure and a host of other synonyms. And I have no doubt that God took pleasure in watching them experience these emotions,
Each of these words has a slightly different technical meaning. The problem is that when we insist on these technicalities of definition we eventually change the definition until joy is no longer joy. It becomes "I'm okay," or "I'm not angry," or "I'm not depressed," but it is no longer joy. When the Israelis finished the temple they celebrated. They were filled with joy. They were excited, happy, relieved, grateful and filled with joy. "I'm okay" doesn't celebrate. It survives, Joy celebrates.
So if my experience is not joy I have three possible responses. First, I can redefine joy. God says that I am to rejoice in the Lord so I'm rejoicing. I just redefine rejoice to mean something other that the normal meaning of the word. The second possibility is to explain away the experience of joy. We find reasons why we are not supposed to be joyful "all the time." Certainly there is truth to that. Unfortunately what often happens is that "all the time" becomes "ever." The third possible response is perhaps the healthiest. We need to ask why we are not experiencing joy.
Looking for joy and focusing on our experience rarely if ever leads to joy. As C.S. Lewis said, we are often surprised by joy when we are not looking for it. But that is exactly what I mean. Are we not experiencing joy because we are too fixated on finding it? Are we not experiencing joy because we are too focused on ourselves? Are we not experiencing joy because we have too high a view of self and too low a view of God?
The best way to experience joy is to quit looking for it. We need to set our eyes on the providential care of God, the blessing of a finished task by His protection and provision, and the undeserved experience of his presence in our lives. When he fills our vision we find ourselves surprised by joy and God takes pleasure in watching us make that discovery. And that is when we celebrate.
Father, thank you for the blessings with which you have surrounded me. Forgive me for not seeing them. Give me eyes to see and a heart filled with gratitude and joy.
By His grace,
Rick Weinert
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