a simple path to joy (part 1): the gateway to honesty

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the May Festival at Evangelical Bible Church in Dallas, Oregon. My assigned topic was "Joy in Simplicity." Here's a glimpse of what I shared:

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How do we find joy? Joy is not automatic. A life free from trouble is no guarantee of joy, and a difficult life does not prevent it.

From 2002 to 2005 we lived in the Philippines. In spite of widespread government corruption, crippling poverty, oppressive heat, and high unemployment, we found Filipinos to be some of the happiest people we've ever met. They can fall asleep anywhere, turn a 1-year-old's birthday into a wedding-sized celebration, and laugh in the face of trouble. They are among the poorest in Asia, but arguably the happiest. Clearly, joy does not depend on circumstances. So how do we get there?

If we imagine a pathway to joy, forward movement depends on three deliberate choices. (There may be others; I'm addressing three here.) The first comes at a gateway, the second at an intersection, and the third at a bend in the road. To enter the gateway we need to choose honesty. To navigate the intersection we must choose gratitude. And to lend perspective for the bends in the path, we need faith.

We make the first deliberate choice at the gateway of honesty. We will never arrive at true joy by pretending to be happy. Denial is the enemy of joy —a closed door to joy's garden path. We cannot bypass grief and pain, guilt or unforgiveness and expect to find joy. That thing that robs us of joy must be faced head on. We must look it in the eye and name it.

In fact, psychologists tell us that when we avoid honesty, we invite poor health, both emotionally and physically. In the words of one scholar who has studied this phenomenon (Brent Strawn, on James Pennebaker's study, in Brueggemann, From Whom No Secrets Are Hid, xix), "Inhibition is hard work, and that work eventually takes its toll on the body's defenses." So you want real joy? Step one is to grieve your losses. Admit your fault. Express your anger. Own your failures. Voice your disappointment. Forgive those who have let you down.

This is a bit awkward to say in church. Most churches have lost the art of making space for this kind of honesty. We give the distinct impression that "putting on your Sunday best" always includes a bright smile. We rarely confess our sins, name our failures, face our fears, and grieve our losses in community. And so our unexpressed emotions become roadblocks to joy. One way to recover these practices is to pray the Psalms together. The Psalms let it all hang out. Every ugly emotion you can imagine.  It's like reality TV, minus the TV.

God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer! By night, but I find no rest! (22:2)

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help! (22:11)

Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness (10:15)

All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears (6:6)

Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? (6:2-3)

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (51:4)

Troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see (40:12)

Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them (54:5)

Through prayer, all these raw and gritty realities are brought into the presence of God and given over for Him to handle. The Psalms are proof that God invites us to come as we are. To say it like it is. And by doing so, to find a new way forward. There's no way around it.

So we begin our journey to joy by choosing to be honest.

Then we come to an intersection, and we have to make our second choice: gratitude. I'll talk about that intersection in my next post on joy. 

a note to my happy friends

I've had a lot to say over the past year about suffering. But perhaps you are in a season of celebration. If so, I rejoice with you. Lilias Trotter has a timely word for souls in springtime:

From Lilias Trotter's Travel Journal, 1900

"You are right to be glad in His April days while He gives them. Every stage of the heavenly growth in us is lovely to Him; He is the God of the daisies and the lambs and the merry child hearts! It may be that no such path of loss lies before you; there are people like the lands where spring and summer weave the year between them, and the autumn processes are hardly noticed as they come and go. The one thing is to keep obedient in spirit, then you will be ready to let the flower-time pass if He bids you, when the sun of His love has worked some more ripening. You will feel by then that to try to keep the withering blossoms would be to cramp and ruin your soul. It is loss to keep when God says 'give.'" (A Blossom in the Desert, 111, emphasis mine)

Biblical Theology made accessible

I just finished reading a good book: T. Desmond Alexander's From Eden to the New Jerusalem. Alexander traces the story of Scripture from beginning to end, showing God's plan for creation and our place in it. Though the book is very accessible (i.e. you don't need a seminary degree to understand it), it offers helpful insights to those who have had years of formal study of the Bible (i.e. I learned a few things!). It reminded me a lot of Greg Beale's Temple and the Church's Mission, but Alexander's book is more suitable for a wider audience. He includes scripture references in full to help make his points, and still manages to keep the book under 200 pages.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to better understand the Big Story that the Bible is telling, how the Old Testament and New Testament fit together, and what role the people of God play in the unfolding of God's plan.

a good book about an even better book!

I just finished reading this excellent book by Greg Beale, entitled The Temple and the Church's Mission: A biblical theology of the dwelling place of God.  It is quite profound and spans the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  I highly recommend it if you want to get the big picture of the message of Scripture. 

This book has been so helpful in giving me an overall framework for understanding Scripture and explaining it to the JW's who are meeting with me. I wanted to give you a taste of what I've learned in the book.  We serve an indescribable God and His Word is just amazing!

As the title suggests, Beale focuses on the concept of the temple, or dwelling place of God.  God was first present to Adam and Eve in Eden, but Beale demonstrates that God intended for Adam and Eve to extend the boundaries of the garden paradise until His presence filled the whole earth.  (A world-wide garden of Eden!) Because they failed to do this, they lost their role as 'priests' in the garden temple.  Later, God chose to make his presence most tangible in the tabernacle, and then the temple, which was also intended to grow until it filled Jerusalem and then the whole earth (see Isaiah 4:5-6; 65:17-18 and Jeremiah 3:16-17).  Israel failed at her mandate to mediate God's presence to the world.  They were exiled and the temple destroyed.  When they returned home to rebuild, they were deeply disappointed with the results.  It was not glorious, and we're never told that God's glory descended to fill it.  But John tells us that Jesus came and "tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory" (John 1:14).  He announces that He is the new temple (Matt 12:6; John 2:19-22).  And by faith in Him we become part of the temple, the place where God's glory dwells (Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:4-10).  The grand finale is found in Rev 21-22 where all of creation becomes a temple, and there is no place where God's glory is not tangible.  Have you ever wondered why the New Jerusalem in Rev 21 is cubic?  The only other structure in the Bible which is said to have a cubic shape is the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the temple where God's glory dwells.  Only the high priest is allowed inside, and only once a year to make intercession for God's people.  But in John's vision the "new heavens and new earth" (i.e. the entire new creation) is a cubic garden-city where God is fully present.  The veil has been torn and now all believers live in the light of God's unhindered presence.  The Holy of Holies is all there is!