I’ve been thinking about Joy all week.

I cannot get the old Christmas hymn out of my mind.  We sang it on Sunday and the lyrics are still ringing in my head.  It’s interesting to me because, honestly, my whole life I’ve wanted to wait on this song.  I want to wait until Christmas Eve and then release it…but this year?  This year I’m looking at it completely different.  This Advent journey is shaking things up.

 

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“Joy to the world, The Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.”

 

 

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Hope gives way to peace and peace establishes a foundation for joy.  Joy is the gift that is best seen through the eyes of peace.

 

I came home from work the other day to an empty house.  I sat at the piano, open score before me, ear buds in and music cued.  I picked up a pencil and prepared to learn.  Instead of what I planned, I experienced something even more.

 

I touched the play button on my phone and music filled my ears.  I watched the score, following the notes before me and listening to how the composer played the song.  I was ready to make notes and analyze my way through, but instead I was completely overwhelmed by the Spirit in this special spontaneous interlude of worship.  I dropped the pencil and gave up all pretense of what I had planned and just took it in.  I saw the LORD and I simply couldn’t do anything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a plan and it was a good one, but I caught a glimpse of the Prince of Peace and I couldn’t turn away.  That’s how it is, you know.  Behold the King of Glory, seated on his holy throne, a throne that rests in the midst of praise.  With my eyes and heart fixed on Him, I was overwhelmed with JOY—unspeakable and undeniable.

 

When we prepare the room—hoping and believing—it makes hosting much easier.  The LORD has come but not everyone is ready to receive Him.  Too often we are a people who look for a quick fix or the effects of grace.  We want to feel peace and joy but refuse to receive them as the gifts they are.

 

This is my experience.  When I believe God’s promises and apply them to the moment at hand, peace always follows.  Circumstances don’t always change immediately, but I do.  The potential for change is immediate, but also dependent upon my choice to bend with the change.  wilfulness can be a tricky thing.  Listen, when Peace becomes my reality and my head and heart align with the TRUTH, there is a bursting forth of JOY!

 

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“And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.”

 

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Hope gives way to Peace and Peace precipitates Joy.  It’s the gift of alignment—the positioning of heart, mind, soul, and spirit, with God.  Joy is resourced by peace, which breaks through when we choose hope.  See, simple choices of positioning can change everything.

 

So…Joy?

 

 

 

Deep Breath…

 

I feel like that takes the pressure off.  I don’t know how to manufacture joy when I look to circumstances for support.  I know I’m not alone.  This can be a hard season to fully embrace, with all its traditions, when you look at it through the eyes of circumstances.  Loss and grief can really suck the life out of you—oh I know it well.  But joy is a gift that results from alignment with the LORD, not from any form of striving.

 

Joy is two-fold.  It begins first as a response.  Eyes that behold the King of Glory cannot help but respond with Joy.  I think that is why scripture tells us again and again to keep our fixed on God.  When eyes are on Jesus, there is JOY.  So it starts as a response or reaction to seeing—really seeing—the LORD, and then it overcomes the darkness (the circumstance).  Joy overcomes places of sorrow because its source is greater than loss.  Joy, which begins as an involuntary reaction to beholding the LORD, becomes the most magnificent gift of grace.  Joy is the healing balm that PEACE releases.  Joy comes bursting forth and attends the soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy’s purpose is to overcome—PERIOD.  The beauty of joy is in the release–you don’t contain it, you release it. The release of joy leaves a wake of healing.  I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of that.

 

I can hope.  I can receive peace and give Him room.  I can let joy overflow.  What about you?

 

I have decided to do that even as the days bring me closer to the most bittersweet of holy days.  I love Christmas and I love Jesus, but this holiday is marked with loss and grief.  There are days I am tempted to simply opt out and coast through quietly and alone. Isolation can look inviting, but it is dangerous because it makes it easier to nurse grief and justify doubt.  I choose to believe God and breathe in the promises as my family and I mark both the birthday of my Father and the anniversary of his physical death during the week of Christmas.  I choose to enter in and be present with my eyes fixed on Jesus because HE is my hope.  He is my Peace.  He is the source of Joy.

 

I believe JOY is possible, because it is the promise of Emmanuel.  I look forward with anticipation and delight, not because the circumstances are okay, but because my spirit is.  I look upon the LORD and make room in my heart for him.  I look at the world around me through the eyes of grace and it becomes my desire to release JOY into the atmosphere.  This is how heaven touches earth!  This is how JOY works!  We lean in and receive it, and it bursts out like a geyser.  With eyes fixed on JESUS there is this JOY effect that doesn’t just leak out, it gushes forth.  You know what else?  Joy is contagious.

 

 

 

 

So think on that. 

What does it look like to let JOY have its way?  What does it look like to really let the release happen instead of trying to contain it?  Because Joy doesn’t deny pain, it soothes it. It’s not one or the other it’s both and.

 

Hope gives way to Peace and Peace shakes it all up creating a Joy reaction which touches everything!

 

Yep—that’s what I’m going after…