There is one aspect of the Christmas season that I am absolutely drawn to every year. To some it feels obnoxiously obvious once the season turns the Christmas dial. To others it seems absent from everything we experience. We display it colorfully in our Christmas decorations. We sing about it merrily in our Christmas songs. Regardless of how spiritual you feel, you are encouraged to approach the season with it. However, JOY is often more difficult an emotion to embrace in the holiday season than it would naturally appear to be.
One basic principle to remember, JOY and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness is based off your circumstances, while JOY comes from the Lord. You can be sad and experience JOY. You can be happy and experience JOY. You can be walking through one of the most difficult circumstances or seasons of life and still experience JOY. Why? Because JOY is not circumstantial. It is found in Jesus.
Paul puts it this way in Philippians 4:4;
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” English Standard Version
Consider this…the word rejoice might better be expressed as “re-find the JOY.” It means that at some point in your life you considered all the beauty and wonder of who Jesus is and that revelation in your life gave you great JOY. What Paul is encouraging us to do, regardless of our circumstance or season, is to re-find that JOY that we once found IN JESUS.
We can also look at a different translation that gives us just a slightly different perspective.
“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” New Living Translation
We don’t have to wait for a certain season or things to get better in life to find JOY. Paul says ALWAYS be full of JOY. It’s a daily mentality of allowing the Lord to be an ever-present reality that shapes our world view and in turn our daily lives.
One of the reasons Christmas is my favorite season is because we are challenged and encouraged to RE-find our JOY. The movies we watch, the songs we sing, and the decorations we set out remind us of the “reason for the season.” It may have been a difficult year, life may not have played out the way we hoped, but during this season we can refocus our attention on Jesus and capture something we felt like may have been lost.
Where can you CHOOSE JOY this holiday season? Where do you need to take inventory of your life and see all the ways that Jesus has been faithful, present, and active throughout this year? Today, find some aspect of your life that you see the JOY of the Lord, focus on it, and allow that JOY to shape how you respond to and interact with the people in your life.
Michael Christian
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