“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” - James 1:2-3, NIV
I believe that I experienced the pure joy that James is referring to on September 27, 2009 at about 11:05 AM (I was in church, that’s why I can remember it so well). Let me explain.
September 27th was a Sunday; on the previous Friday (September 25th), I received one of those phone calls that you never want to get. My doctor called me and told me that the biopsy had come back positive. I had prostate cancer. My wife was out of town for the weekend and she wasn’t going to return until Sunday afternoon, so we decided we wouldn’t tell our children until the following Friday. This meant I couldn’t tell anybody for a week because we didn’t want our children to find out from “somebody who told somebody, who told somebody else.” So, I went to church on Sunday with “a secret.” Shortly after our praise team started singing, I began to cry. Tears were streaming down my face. However, the emotion that I was experiencing was joy, the pure joy that James was describing. I was surprised by this, because I wasn’t feeling very joyous at the time.
That pure joy was possible because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. I knew that Christ loved me and that nothing could separate me from the love of Christ, not even cancer (“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? [As the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’] No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:35-39, NLT). The cancer had been found early, so I was confident that I would be cured, but even that didn’t matter. I knew that Christ would take care of me.
I write this as encouragement to others. The pure joy that James is discussing is available to everybody. If you have a relationship with Christ, but have never experienced pure joy, then keep seeking him (“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you…” - James 4:8, NKJ). If you don’t have a relationship with Christ, you may believe that you had experienced pure joy before (I know I did), but the joy you can experience through Christ is a joy far beyond any “natural joy” you can experience.
God's abundant grace is revealed in your personal testimony. That you would, in the midst of a significant trial, experience a greater joy than you had know before speaks to the life-changing power of the blood of Jesus!
ReplyDeleteI don't know who said it first, but a mentor once told me, "You don't know what you don't know." Like the new and greater concept of joy you experienced through Jesus, I have found my concepts of joy, love, hope, and forgiveness expanding and ever-changing during my Christian journey. What I thought I understood about such things has been regularly superceded by what God, in His grace, has chosen to reveal to me.
The one thing I have come to understand through this experience is that there is so much I don't understand. The great thing is, He does. And He says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3)