JOY!

Joy is something every disciple of Christ needs to understand.  Let me just quote Eugene Peterson:

"Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it a a consequence.   It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.  Joy is a product of abundance; it is the overflow of vitality.  It is life working together harmoniously.  It is exuberance.  Inadequate sinners as we are, none of us can manage that for very long.

The entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture.  Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal.  But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary--a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at the most.  We cannot make ourselves joyful.  Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged.

But there is something we can do.  We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs.  We can decide to live in the environment of a living God and not our own dying selves. We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab.  One of the certain consequences of such a life is joy."

May the joy you experience this Christmas be more than a fleeting moment but a life time of walking in faith and obedience.