Maintaining Our Joy Throughout Broken Hopes & Shattered Dreams
By Andrea Hughes
Editor Selectedly Single, Professional Counselor, Relationships Coach & Family Life Minister
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Joy is a great and healthy state to be in but not
too many of us Christians seem to have it and after we get it the state doesn't
seem to stay for many of us. We know it 's good for us and our Savior talks
about us having it. The Jan. 17, 2005 Time Magazine devoted a complete issue to
this subject and one of the things their researchers found out is that religious
people are less stressed and happier than nonbelievers. Are some of us
Christians missing something? Maybe there is more in scriptures about joy than
we have gleaned at first glance. If Jesus says in the gospel according to John
16:23-24 "whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to
you….and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." This is something to be
joyful about. Why is it that we aren't receiving and joyful all the time? Well,
Jesus knew we would face life's ups and downs. Even He was disappointed time and
again. What is He talking about then? What indeed is this joyfulness suppose to
be that is always with us?
We know that happiness comes and goes but joy
endures, something you still have, even in a time of dashed hopes and shattered
dreams. Is joy then connected to our perspective, our heart attitude, possibly
the relationship with Jesus? Maybe that is what is hinted at in the passage
about abiding in Jesus in John 15:7. When we take the time to sit with
scripture, linger, hang onto Jesus' words as Mary, Martha's sister, did
absorbing and meditating on these words like she, the beloved apostle John, and
Jesus' mother Mary did, we will be able to ask according to His will and things
will be done unto us that we ask. This should make anyone happy. John tells us
in chapter 13 verse 17 that Jesus said to his apostles after modeling service,
sacrifice, kind heartedness, and humility washing their feet, that "If you know
these things, joyful are you if you do them." Well we can see right off that you
not only have to know what Jesus was saying and doing (meaning we have to be
reading and meditating on the word of God) but we have to follow in His
footsteps. Now this is where it gets tough. How can you do what Jesus did
without some strong power, suppression of our will, our flesh? He even says,
through the apostle Peter, that when our faith is.
Now you know going through life's ups and downs from
hurricanes and fires that wipe out everything you had, to your sweetheart or
friend betraying you, and coming out on the other side joyful takes something
special. Grace? Relationship? Knowing? Perspective? Heart attitude? Is this why
the giants of faith were able to still have joy - from ship wreaked, beaten,
imprisoned starved, stoned apostle Paul to Harriet Tubman, the bold ex-slave, to
Dr. M. L. King Jr., Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Cesar Chavez taking a brave
stand for the poor? Is it because they had purpose and relationship, a deep
knowing? Hmm.
If social and behavioral scientists have figured out
that religious people have an edge on a happier, less stressed life and pin it
to the benefits of their "social and spiritual support, a sense of purpose and
meaning and the avoidance of risky and stressful behaviors", (Time 1/17/05
pp.A6-7) what are we less joyful ones doing with these assets? What is your
unique purpose on the planet? Are you living it out to God's glory, with joy?
 Maybe it would be beneficial to not only take more
time out to study these giants' lives but to sit quietly at the feet of Jesus,
Ps. 46:10, especially when this exquisite model, perfect leader and teacher who
kept His eyes on the finish line, endured for the joy He knew was coming",
submitted to the horrors of the cross and yet triumphed to sit at the right hand
of the throne of God, seat of all power. Hebrews 12:1-2. We are instructed to
"consider Him and what He endured" when our joy seems to be dissipating and we
feel weary and faint. Heb. 12:3-6, that He loves us, He promised never to leave
us or forsake us, Hebrews 13:5b, that things are working out for our good,
Romans 8:28, that "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly"
Psalms 84:11, that we have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, I
Corinthians 15:57, and more promises like this which He keeps every one He
makes, Proverbs 30:3a.
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