Joy

I was surprised at my own reactions while watching the recent Olympics on television. I watched sports I only vaguely knew existed and athletes I never heard of, and found myself swept away with the excitement and emotion of the moment. I experienced exhilarating joy over victories and shared tears of happiness at award presentations. It was especially exciting when the cameras would focus on the faces of the athletes’ family members.

Because worldly joy relies on surroundings, conditions, other people and circumstances; disappointments and losses can often rob us of our joy and cause sadness. We can be deflated from ecstatic happiness by harsh words, aches, pains, discomforts or inconveniences. Christian joy should not rely on worldly circumstances; it should be there even when we are disappointed, inconvenienced, hurting, or alone. In John 16:22 Jesus said, “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you”. In Psalms 30:5, David said, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”.

1 Thessalonians 4: 16 & 17 tells of our Lord’s second coming, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”.

If I can get so pumped up and excited over something as temporal as the Olympics that occur every four years; I cannot imagine what the joy will be like when I hear the shout of the archangel.