Thought for Today
Psalm 100:1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
Ezra 6:16 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.
Matthew 2:10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
Matthew 25:21 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
Yesterday’s devotional in These Days ended with 2 very important questions, “What puts a song of joy on your lips?” and “What stirs you to raise your hands to praise God?” If you are stumped in coming up with an exhaustive list, pray harder!
In The Sound of Music, the stage musical and 1965 movie with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, the song “My Favorite Things” makes an attempt to answer those questions. While I am often intrigued by “brown paper packages tied up with string,” they are not top on my list.
It is easy to get caught up in the hustle/bustle of life, bogged down in the minutia of daily life and lose sight of the joys of life. It is especially easy when we are young, just starting out as adults. As we establish ourselves as independent adults, free from the rules and regulations of our parents, it is easy to ignore the joys all around us.
In my early teens, I encountered the poem Rabbi Ben Ezra. I read that Robert Browning wrote that poem to his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Since I first read that poem, I have been intrigued by the opening, “Grow old along with me!/The best is yet to be,/The last of life, for which the first was made:/Our times are in His hand/Who saith ‘A whole I planned,/Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid’” I have quoted that to Greta since we first met, probably 5-6 bazillion times. At each stage of our lives together, youth and now today, we have found things which bring us joy. One of the most important is our life together.
Together we found joy in raising our children. We now find joy with our grandchildren. There is great joy in experiencing and in watching the cycle of life play out in our lives and in the lives of those we love.
What does bring a song of joy to your lips? What does stir you to raise your hands to praise our Creator God? Has the answer changed as you have gone through your life? Do you even have an answer? Our culture does not focus on joy so much as it focuses on success. Our culture generally defines success in financial terms. While material things can bring comfort and ease, do material things bring you joy?
The word joy appears 158-218 times in the Bible, depending on the translation you use. Obviously, joy is an important part of our faith. Our Creator God built joy into the very fabric of Creation. It’s raining outside as I look out the window; but, there is joy in each season of the year. The birds and animals are sheltering from the rain; but, there is joy in watching all of God’s creatures as they go about their lives, fulfilling their place in God’s Creation.
I will admit that I rarely thought about joy during my career as an engineer. I have mentioned before the tee shirt given to me by friends with the line on its front, “Engineers are not boring. They just excited about boring things.” Maybe so. But I do find joy in the structure God built into Creation. Maybe only an engineer or someone who was educated in a STEM discipline could appreciate the joy of 2 + 2 = 4 . . . every time! There is joy in the reliability of the laws of chemistry, physics and thermodynamics.
Now, I find joy in ‘working’ on Sundays. There is great joy in leading the faithful, faith-filled congregation in worship of our Creator God. There is joy in the songs, joy in the prayers, joy in the fellowship we share. We are now in Lent, a time of special joy. There is excitement and joy in all of the preparations, in the planning, in the choir rehearsals. All of it makes my heart sing, makes me raise my hands to praise our God. How about you?
Stay safe, find your joy in God’s Creation, trust God,
Pastor Ray