Joy

“What I am anxious to see in Christian believers is a beautiful paradox. I want to see in them the joy of finding God while at the same time they are blessedly pursuing Him. I want to see in them the great joy of having God yet always wanting Him.” ~ A. W. Tozer

I was searching for texts about joy in the Bible and there are many, but none really jumped out at me.  So I opted for an interesting quotation from a prolific religious writer and pastor, A. W. Tozer.  Now I will admit that I had no idea who he was or what he did...until I looked him up on, of all things, Wikipedia.  While not formally a member of any mainline Christian denomination he was instead a pastor of an evangelical church.  During his lifetime he wrote many books and articles on faith and theology.  What I like about this quotation is that, for Tozer joy is something that is felt individually and visible to others.  This joy is derived from engaging in a relationship with God and that this relationship is never final.  Along our journey we can find him, but will never catch him.  We can hold him in our hearts, but yet always desiring to remain and grow closer to God.  It is a paradox that adequately describes the nature of our relationship with God and joy is the byproduct of living our lives in such a manner.

Reflecting upon this quotation has me thinking about the times when I have seen God and how that experience has driven me to seek God in other places.  I remember traveling to Honduras as part of a mission trip.  We had the opportunity to spend most of our time in a village about nine kilometers outside of the center of the capital, Tegucigalpa.  On our first day we walked through the main road of the village down towards the church that we would spend the week building, painting, and cleaning up.  As we walked down the street I could not help but notice the extreme poverty in which these people lived.  Houses, if you even want to call them houses, were made flattened cans.  The floors were bare ground and often only one room where everything happened from cooking to sleeping.  Kids were throwing the household trash out the back door into valleys filled with trash.  Most of the men were employed to farm the banana plantation that fueled any sort of economy in the area.  I was struck by this poverty.  My heart ached.  Feelings of guilt for having so much and not realizing how lucky I was to live in my context.  I had a strong desire to do something, fix something, to improve the quality of life.  But it was overwhelming because no matter how much I wanted to do it would never change things on a systematic level.  We did do great things there that impacted the lives of the villagers, and for that I find joy, but as a whole this poverty will continue no matter how much we did.  Now this should not deter us from continuing to do such work but the problem will not be solved.  Jesus said the poor will always be with us and that as Christians we are to take care of them.

Just as I thought this situation was hopeless, as we met with families and were invited into their homes I saw something that I did not expect to see.  I saw joy.  The people did not see themselves as poor but thankful to be alive, to survive, and to have their families.  They had no attachment to material goods.  They did not adhere to a strict time schedule, things happened when they happened.  They celebrated their faith with joy and it was made manifest in their lives and they way they interacted and lived in community.  Joy can be found in the most unexpected places.  It is found when we seek to serve other in Christ and in deepening our own personal relationship with God.  Where do you find joy in your life?  How can you find joy in a deeper relationship with God?  It is there.  It is possible.  Seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.