Over the last few years I have often wondered if it is possible for a person to experience joy when life is not going your way. It has been a personal question.
For most of us, when life is giving us high-fives and we feel like we are winning, we don’t necessarily need someone to cheer us up. It’s when we are not getting the high-fives, when we are losing (seemingly a lot!), and watching the lights get turned off in our life when we search with desperation for inner peace and joy.
Ancient words written by the apostle Paul have been instructive to me in this regard. Writing to a group of Christians in a city called Philippi, a Roman colony situated several miles east of Rome, he offered words of hope. What is striking about this particular letter is that Paul wrote it from prison. And to be clear, his experience was not like some we hear of in the West where cable tv and Wi-Fi is offered in certain prison contexts. His experience of prison was a cruel and grueling one. Paul was writing from a place of pain.
Adding to that drama was that he was writing to a group of Christ-followers who were being physically persecuted for their faith. These Christians were risking their lives for Christ. Paul, then, was writing from a place of pain to a people who were also in pain.
It is in the fourth chapter of the letter that he instructs his friends in Philippi to “rejoice.” Paul repeats this word a second time to emphasize that in their cultural climate where many pagan celebrations were had, followers of Christ had an even greater reason to celebrate the reality of Jesus Christ. Implicitly, Paul was saying that in the midst of suffering, joy is possible.
If I can share personally for a moment, the last five years have been the most trying years of my life. Experiences both of losing people close to me and also job loss, created a perfect storm of worry and fear that I had never experienced in my life. Looking back on these years of struggle, I now know that one of the main lies that comes to us in our pain is that joy is not possible—that no matter what happens in front of us, joy will not be possible.
This is why I find the words of Paul so heartening. Before he gives an explanation of why they can experience joy in the midst of their pain, he makes a provocative claim—that joy itself is actually possible.
After encouraging and challenging his friends to rejoice, he then writes: “The Lord is near.” Paul not only states that joy is possible; he says that joy is possible because God is with us. The statement “The Lord is near” reminded Christians in Philippi that God was with them, he heard their prayers, and he would answer their prayers. Joy is possible, wrote Paul, because we have God with us. There are few things in life worse than experiencing deep pain. But what most certainly can make pain worse is when we feel alone in our pain. Paul here is not denying that his friends are in pain. He is simply saying that because of Jesus Christ, we are never alone in it.
In 2016 my father died suddenly. His health had been giving him some challenges, but my family and I thought it would turn around and that he would be back to his healthy self in due course. After his death we discovered via autopsy that my father died from cancer. Since my dad’s passing my friends have asked me what I miss most about my dad, and although there are many things that I miss about my dad, the one thing I miss the most is his presence – not necessarily doing anything particular with him, but just being with him, seeing him in the living room or at the kitchen table, or being in the backyard with him. I miss his presence.
The hard truth is that I will not see my father again on this side of eternity. The ancient words of Paul to people in Philippi do not deny that fact, but his words add a deeper texture to the felt absence of my dad. Paul is saying that because of the Spirit of Jesus given to us, although we might never have the loved ones in our life who we desire to be near to us, the Lord himself is near. Perhaps most profoundly, we can know God’s presence with us because God’s Spirit dwells inside of us.
One question that emerges in this message from Paul is: “Well, if joy is possible and if God is with us, how do we know and experience this?”
Thankfully, Paul speaks to this question. After stating that God is with us, he goes on to say:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Paul makes another bold, and seemingly insensitive, comment. He tells his friends to not be anxious. Making an educated guess here, he is saying that because anxiety was exactly what they were feeling. But like before, Paul does not stop with the instruction or command, he explains how they can remember that God is with them, hold on to joy, and not be anxious. His explanation comes in the form of encouraging them to pray: “…in every situation, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God.”
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