Choose Joy

I remember as a child in Sunday school singing, "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart..." Perhaps when we are children, it is easy to be joyful (provided we are loved and cared for). But as an adult, when we've seen the world as it truly is, and have experienced hardships we never imagined -  and perhaps even wish we could forget - it becomes a little more difficult to take the apostle Paul's words to heart.

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!... Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus… Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. --Philippians 4

This admonition from Paul to the Philippian church was the subject of a conversation recently with my Thai teacher. She works with many young people in their early 20s who are living far away from their families for the first time, trying to minister for Jesus in a new culture without the close support to which they are accustomed. She was sharing with me her heart for some of what she sees in these young people as they struggle here in Thailand, and what she shared was so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you (or at least my English translation of her Thai story).

Many people grow up in a good family, with good parents who truly try to live like Jesus and teach their children to be like Him. Their home is like a garden, full of blooming flowers and beautiful trees and running water. The children in that home have good things spoken into their hearts, and they receive those good things and all the love that comes with them, and the children grow and blossom.

But then when the children leave home, they meet other kinds of people – people who do not speak good into their lives. These people speak words of discouragement. They tell the now grown child that they are not good enough. They speak words of hurt that tear down rather than build up. Now the person is no longer in a garden, but a garbage dump, filled with rotting things that try to invade their heart.

Little by little, these bad things rip holes in the heart, from which bleed sorrow and despair. The heart that was once clean is now dirty with the garbage of the world. And I tell these young people, you must throw out that garbage! Many of them try to cover it up. They put on a smile and tell everyone that everything is fine, but inside their heart has become black and smells like rotting garbage, and there is no smile there. Garbage should not be kept and held onto, but rather thrown away! Throw away these lies that the enemy has told you, don’t hold onto them and let them stink inside you.

Instead, fill your heart with the things you know to be true from God’s Word. As Paul tells us in Philippians, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (vs. 8). As you make the conscious decision to throw away the garbage that the world has given you, that oppresses your spirit and robs you of your peace with its stench, and replace it with the truths of Jesus, He makes your heart white again. And you have joy. 

This last week I have been drawn repeatedly to the new single by For King & Country, “Joy.” It has been speaking into my heart in a way that I think can only be from Jesus. My heart can easily become a melancholy place, and my spirit has fought battles with depression for years. My practice of lying in bed at night praying for people I love can easily turn into a session of worry about situations both real and imagined and rob my peace and joy in a way that leaves me sleepless and discouraged, and which looks nothing like Paul’s instruction to “not worry about anything, but pray about everything.”

In particular, I have recently been struggling with the way in which the call of God to the mission field takes me away from my family members who need me. I think about these young students of Khruu Rutjira, and they remind me of my own daughter living far away from me – and her siblings, who will soon follow that path. How do I reconcile the call of God on my life with my desire to be with my children and support them as they head out into our garbage-filled world? Whenever they encounter bad in this life, I lament that I am not there to help them throw out the refuse that tries to lodge in their hearts. But meanwhile, am I letting the lies of the enemy turn my own heart black?

And there it is. Both my children and I must learn to guard our hearts against becoming a garbage dump. And how do we do that? By fixing our thoughts (not just occasionally remembering, mind you, but steadfastly fixing our thoughts) on what is TRUE – I am loved by God. He will never leave me or forsake me. He walks with me, working through me and my experiences to mold me into the person He made me to be, someone who can shine like gold refined in the fire because of His Spirit at work in me. And in the midst of everything, He is still good. No matter what trash the enemy and the people of the world attempt to hurl at me, God’s character never changes, and He will help me identify and repel what is bad and cling to what is good.

When we have been reminded of what is true, we can begin to look around us and see the many things God has given that are “honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable… [and] excellent and worthy of praise” (vs. 7). Our hearts become a garden blooming with wonder and thankfulness, and before long we understand that we have chosen joy. Of course, tomorrow we will need to choose joy again. It isn’t a one-time choice, as each day brings a new mound of rubbish to dispose of. And there may be times when we are tempted to give in to the desire to retreat into depression and worry. No, joy is not the easy choice. But it is the best choice. It is the choice that brings life.

So what about you? Do you choose joy?

*Watch "Joy" by For King & Country: