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 A few years ago Canadian writer Mike Mason (author of The Mystery of Marriage, The Gospel According to Job, etc.) launched what he called "an experiment in joy": he made up his mind to be joyful in the Lord every day for ninety days. A moody person by nature, for him this was a radical experiment that changed his life. Throughout the ninety days he kept a journal, which eventually became a book on joy entitled Champagne for the Soul.
What follows is part of a series of ten excerpts from that book (now in a new edition by Regent College Publishing, available through Amazon.ca).
What Happened?
What has happened to all your joy?
Galatians 4:15 Notice the clear implication in Paul's dramatic question above: Christians should be living a life of joy, and if we aren't, something's wrong. If we aren't joyful we need to ask ourselves, What happened? Where did we get off track? Paul's letter to the Galatians is all about how these early Christians moved away from the gospel of joy and freedom, and what they needed to do to come back.
Another clear implication of Paul's question is that the Christian life always begins in joy. If we've lost sight of joy, regaining it is a simple matter of retracing our steps, going back to where we first opened our hearts to Jesus. The good news of Christ is so wonderful that it's always received with joy. As Paul wrote elsewhere, You welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:6). This is why people come to Christ because they sense the great joy He alone offers. Just before sinners repent they can sense the peace, the freedom, the immense relief of handing over everything to Jesus. And so they let go and let God, and He is true to His word and floods them with joy.
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No one would become a Christian if this hard decision were not accompanied by stupendous joy. Granted, depending on temperament and circumstance, for some the joy of conversion may seem more intellectual, while for others it's more emotional. Some see their conversion as a gradual process, while others recall a dramatic experience. Each one receives joy in his own way. Still, every true conversion to Christ is marked by joy. Moreover the joy of conversion is no flash in the pan. It keeps coming and coming. Many Christians can look back on the early days of their faith as a season in which the whole world seemed new. Colors were brighter, music was richer, relationships deepened, some struggles were overcome almost with ease. Why shouldn't this be the case for someone who has been born again into eternal life? I am making everything new (Revelation 21:5) is a promise of Jesus that every Christian experiences prophetically from the start. We indeed enter a new life (Romans 6:4). Paul's question, therefore, is a valid one: What happened to all this? What would possess anyone to throw it away? Don't you remember the glorious joy with which you first welcomed the Lord Jesus Christ? Why would you settle for anything less now? Are you less of a Christian today than you were at conversion? No, if anything you should be further along; you should feel more joyful, more free, more blessed in every way. As Paul wrote exasperatedly to this same doltish church, You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? (3:1; 5:7) What rigid rules and petty pieties are cutting us off from joy? The very fact that we want joy proves that we know what it is. We know it because we had it once, and if we had it once, we can have it again. How did it arrive in the first place? By faith and love. By hearing and believing the astounding message that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6).
September 27/2007
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