Joy is Already Shining
Those who know deep sorrow, know deep joy.
I sat at Starbucks praying for you. Yes, you. The one who's reading this. I asked God how to serve you. How to encourage you and love you. I wrote these words:
"God I want to emit light. Your light. I want to radiate joy."
Joy.
Rewind to 2010. I was living as a missionary in Asia at the time. It was a Monday. On Mondays, all our missionary teams living across the city would meet as a family to have church. Our gathering usually took place at our city leader’s apartment. At the end of our church service, we broke up into groups of three to pray for each other. Since the space was small, my leaders T, K (names hidden for security), and I went to their bedroom to pray. K sat on the bed, I sat on the floor, and T paced the room as all three of us asked Holy Spirit to speak.
My knees hit the floor and my elbows rested on their bed when I heard T speak: "Vivien, God's giving you a new name. He calls you Vivien Joy!
I shed tears as T recited those words over and over — “Vivien Joy, Vivien Joy!” I felt an overwhelming sense of safety, thankfulness, and trust. God saw my past, present and future and spoke joy over it. Years later, I hold that name close because I truly feel like joy is the skin I’ve been given.
There were trying seasons when I recalled T’s prayer and said to the Lord, “Are you kidding me?! This is too hard, my joy is completely gone! That name was a complete lie.” — Oh how the enemy wants to steal our truth! — Little did I know, those were the moments that God was cultivating pure joy and helping me settle into my new skin. Since that prayer, I’ve had doubts and even rage because I thought I had to live up to the name God had given. But God shifted my perspective yet again. To live in joy doesn’t mean it comes easy or automatically. People and things can’t just give it to us either. To live in joy is to also live through sorrow and grief.
Back to my prayer for you. We all know pain, loss, and grief. This year especially, you turn on anything with a power button and you immediately feel the weight of the world bulldoze you. The anguish, evil, and destruction happening just outside our door, all the way to the other side of the world is crushing. We cry, “We just can't take anymore pain!”
First and foremost, we aren't meant to bear the weight of the entire world and it's problems. Yet, we do ache when we witness or experience suffering. We are wired and built that way. In those times, we can't just turn joy on.
Yet, God is speaking joy to us for this moment right now:
Those who know deep sorrow, know deep joy. The depths of sorrow that we're experiencing today is evidence of deep joy. In other words — the depths of sorrow that we’re experiencing today means that we’re taking joy to the depths too.
With suffering comes pain, but also joy! Pure joy that can’t be stolen, manufactured, or ever wiped away. Because God-given joy isn’t man-made, it can’t be taken away by man.
Does this truth make suffering less painful? Absolutely not. War, death, and destruction is straight up dark and unbearable.
Yet, deep joy makes deep suffering worth the cost. Your deep sorrow does not go unnoticed. We’re living in unbearable times, but those who wade the deepest waters find treasures that no man can argue away or destroy.
May God lift our eyes to see his light when the world fails us or tries to kill our faith. When dark forces attack, may we have the wisdom and boldness to fight in the Spirit, NOT by our own strength. We’re not ones to just sit on the sidelines. We fight with truth, anger, tenacity and passion against evil that’s trying to rule. It's not easy, we will experience loss, but we’ll also see God’s justice. We endure the anguish and keep the faith because we know full well that joy is our inheritance in Christ alone.
Through sorrow, joy runs deep. Through pain, joy will never run dry.
How can I be so sure? Because God showed me a glimpse of his marvelous joy shining as I sat at a Starbucks praying for you.
"For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining."
1 John 2:8
On Joy and Sorrow
by Kahil Gibran
“Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.”
Apply It
1. Try to notice glimpses of joy in your day. A marvelous sunset. Kindness from a stranger. A light breeze.
2. Write those moments down and ask God to water the joyful seeds you’re sowing.