An expectation of joy ...

In the beginning …

If ever there was a time that could be called perfect, this was it. Again and again, God speaks things into existence. When the Creator sees his work, he sees that it is good, and it really is. Into this flawless world, this perfect cosmos, God inserts two perfectly healthy, hand-matched, hand-made human beings. Adam is overwhelmed. When the Namer first sees his mate, he is quick to name her and claim her; he is content that he finally has the perfect helpmeet. Together, walking, and talking, and working with God are just as natural and pleasurable as any life could possibly be.

Unfortunately, most humans experience satisfaction as a fleeting feeling, a passing moment. The experience of Adam and Eve is no different. The Adversary picks on the one who did not personally hear the instruction to avoid the tree of good and evil to find a gap to jab in his wedge of doubt. But the one who heard the instruction stands right there, without a word of protest, as doubt is cast upon the trustworthiness of God. The adversary inserts distrust into human minds: “Perhaps the Creator did not tell us the truth about the tree.” The adversary inserts a desire into human hearts – a desire for mastery and control: “Perhaps if we possess the knowledge of good and evil then we can control our garden, our world, just as God controls it now.”

And so, for the very first time, man and woman experienced something negative together; they expected something other than that which God was giving them. Neither human was flawed, because they were both perfectly made by the Creator of all creation. Yet because of their free wills, they both failed and fell. They both were separated from the tree of life, and consequently, they both started dying the day they chose unsafely. What God said would happen began to happen.

Now people have read into this scripture a dozen things that it does not say. They make it out that somehow either man or woman, or both, become something less than what they were created to be. The scripture does not say this. God describes things that would happen to them outside of the garden, and he describes things that they would do to each other, but he did not prescribe that humans would become less than human. He merely mourns the fact that from here on out, because of their freedom of choice (one of the ways they live in the image of God), and because of their separation from a daily walk with God, every human being will choose to exercise their freedom of choice to rebel against God and his will. Every human will choose to behave less than humanly. Every one, that is, except the promised one.

How about us? How much discontent, how much suffering, how much evil comes from our unrealistic expectations, from our unwillingness to choose to be content? How much grief and anger do we create for ourselves because we will not trust God to keep his promises? How much grief and anger do we cause for others because we seek to snatch control of the universe out of the hands of God because we think we can do better or work faster? Haven’t we learned the cost of our discontent yet? Paul counsels us to wisdom: “For I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13 – NRSV).

Most of us have experienced plenty and want. All of us know what it is to be stuffed and to be hollow. Yet, if we are honest, we can say that God has proven to be faithful to us from one extreme to the other. If he is still with us, and he promised that he would be, can we not stop obsessing over controlling every little event in our lives, or those events of our children’s lives, and let God prove his providence? Can we not make it our expectation that God will provide just what we need, just at the right time?

In that expectation, there is joy. There is contentment. There is glory. Not in our conquering the world, but in watching our God work alongside our meager efforts so that he can fill our lives to overflowing with so many good things.

Consequently, dwell today in the words of this psalm:

Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
Full of honor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him;
he is ever mindful of his covenant.
He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the heritage of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
They are established forever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.
Psalm 111 – NRSV

May his name be praised!

Ron

Making joy complete

Greg ends the week with these thoughts:

This week we have identified the joy in knowing God's power and knowing that he is mighty to save, the joy in God's forgiveness of our sins and remaking of our hearts, and the joy of God the fixer, who restores us and makes us whole. These all represent joy that is derived from what God does; God is powerful, God transforms, God restores. Today let's ask, "Is there any joy that comes from what we do?"

But to give me the power to displease you, or to set a sin before your face, which you infinitely hate, to profane Eternity, or to defile your works, is more stupendous than all these. What else could you intend by it but that I might infinitely please you? And having the power of pleasing or displeasing, might please you and myself infinitely, in being pleasing! Thus you have prepared a new fountain and torrent of joys greater than all that went before, seated us in the throne of God, made us your companions, endued us with a power more dreadful to ourselves, that we might live in sublime and incomprehensible blessedness forevermore. For the satisfaction of our goodness is the most sovereign delight of which we are capable. And that by our own actions we should be well pleasing to you, is the greatest happiness nature can contain. O you who are infinitely delightful to human beings, make me, and all humans, infinitely delightful to you. Replenish our actions with amiableness and beauty, that they may be answerable to yours, and like yours in sweetness and value. That as you in all your works are pleasing to us, we in all our works may be so to you; our own actions as they are pleasing to you being an offspring of pleasures sweeter than all.
- adapted from Thomas Traherne

Perhaps the greatest joy available to humanity is the joy of pleasing God. This joy is how God's transformation of our hearts and restoration of our souls work themselves out. This joy is the perpetual, enduring, ever-renewable joy of lives lived in God's will. This is what we are made for! What greater joy can there be than the fulfillment of doing and being what we are made for?

"As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you.
Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands,
you will remain in my love,
just as I have obeyed my Father's commands
and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and that your joy may be complete.
- John 15:9-12

Obeying God's commands, and remaining in his love, makes our joy complete! The fact that we can please God is cause for joy, because it gives us hope of a deeper bond with him and it represents his plan for us. Joy can surprise; it can come at us from many different directions. One of the most unfiltered joys of all is the joy is living out God's call. Let's pray for joy.

O God,
God of joy
we pray that you give us your joy

Help us to rejoice in your might,
and your power to overcome our sins and circumstances

Show us joy as you wash away our sin
and form within us something new,
your kind of person

Let joy rush through us as you make us whole again
let us dance when you restore to what you made us to be

Above all, help us to multiply these joys in our lives
Grant us grace to live out these joys,
and so to attain the joy of pleasing you
may the sacrifice of our lives be a pleasing aroma to you
and let us dance and sing,
living in your light.

Amen