Reconsidering Joy

By Pastor Vinnie

“Joy is happiness brought by the wisdom of restored trust in God even among the struggle.

When happiness fades joy reignites!”

I stumbled upon this journal reflection I had written last year from my thoughts on the book of James. It has been healing for me to read my own reflections. I pray you find it the same way as we step through James Chapter 1 together.

As you read this, stop, reflect, and reconsider if you bring Joy or trials into this world, and how?

Buckle up… here we go!

Deep Reflections on James 1:1-12 in context with the full epistle.

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials. (James 1:2)

Joy is beyond happiness. If you are like me, you too want to be happy, and seeking happiness is a worthy pursuit. (Psalm 37:4, Philippians 4:4, Proverbs 15:13). God wants us to thrive in completeness and soar in happy bliss.

Happiness

The wind in your face on the beach, the laugh of a child playing by your side, and the thrill of a new budding friendship, are all that defines the rewards of this life to us all.

We all want what we call happiness. But what really is happiness? When you get right down to it nobody actually knows, and it actually is the subject of interesting philosophical debate[i] but for our purposes let’s just consider it to mean “the natural emotional state of well-being” that is present when we are not at risk or in danger. Therefore, if our problems didn’t exist then we’d be freely living in continual “happiness.” I believe we were designed to be happy at all times in all things; if it were not for the interruptions caused by our collective brokenness in this world. And now happiness, as grand as it is, is also subject to humanity’s hardships. Music may make us happy. A good movie may make us happy. Deep meaningful relationships may make us happy. However, they do this by distracting us from the trials of this world and offering us a reprieve.

Trials

The most basic way to see the cause of trials in this world is actually to see them as a breach in the equilibrium of the happiness that God had originally intended for us always have in Eden.

If happiness is “the natural emotional state of well-being” that God designed us to live in then trials are the pains of the brokenness humanity has collectively produced. Our brokenness is a condition we love to share with others. We have been passing this brokenness on since our expulsion from Eden. Our chaos is the disruptor of the continual happy bliss that should have always existed in a world of pure potential. God brought goodness and happiness and man has taken that goodness and happiness and turned it into chaos and suffering by corrupting it for selfish means.

Consider this; God created more than enough happiness and goodness for all of humanity because that is what a good creator would do. Selfishness is the broken desire based on a lack of trust that assumes God has not provided enough and so we (like Cain) seek to take more than our share of goodness and happiness creating in its place an abundance of emptiness for others.  Trials are created because of the selfishness of humans destroying the Kingdom’s economy of goodness. God’s  Kingdom economy is full of wisdom, blessings, and completeness that fill us up with love and goodwill but through lack of trust in God we inflict continual pain and suffering on each other and as a result, the world has reaped chaos and suffering as far as the curse is found. No one can escape suffering and trials because all humanity is seeking to gather up all the blessings and wealth for itself ensuring a continual inequality for all.

Joy

The Epistle of James, offers us joy in place of trials.

What is Joy? – For James, it is the wisdom of not being double-minded or saying we trust God while seeking our own sources of happiness. Joy is the reprieve from trials and yet is greater than happiness because with wisdom it can endure where happiness fades.

Joy is happiness brought by the wisdom of restored trust in God even among the struggle. When happiness fades joy reignites!

Joy is the restoring of trust in God despite the shortage of happiness in the economy of man. Since our lack of trust created selfishness that produced sufferings in this world, trust in God’s wisdom is what restores us to a place where we can escape suffering by believing He has our best interest at heart. We suffer. In fact, we all suffer and that suffering makes us seek to gather in greed for ourselves what is meant to be shared and make others happy.

The Epistle of James rebukes us for seeking selfishness as a way to dispel chaos and trials;

“But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.  For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.” (James 1:10-11)

James is warning us, that the way to victory is not in selfish wealth, but rather God is in the business of letting the inequality of selfishness pass away like a scorched plant under the hot sun. God will limit selfishness and wealth[ii] but there is one commodity that God will not limit;

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” (James 1:5-8)

What I have come to love about this passage is that James says, not only that God will give wisdom generously in times of trial, but even more importantly “without finding fault” with us for lacking it in the first place!  We were once fools, selfish fools, we once sought happiness in all kinds of excess and wealth. We once thought materialism would fill us but it left us empty and inflicting even more trials on others. We once put our trust in anything and everything but God’s wisdom. James tells us that God doesn’t hold that against us! James tells us that God does not find fault in our past lack of wisdom. James tells us that God simply calls us to trust His wisdom and that he will give it generously so that we can stop being double-minded!

Joy is the victory of trusting God is enough especially when our pain tells us to doubt his heart towards us. Wisdom reminds us that if we have God and His joy we will know that the Kingdom economy never comes up lacking!  We will stop hoarding and start giving, because when we have the Wisdom of God!  We finally trust He is good, and if He is good He will take our current trials and turn them into perseverance that produces even greater faith than before! (James 1:3)

Victory Is Our Joy

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:12)

The crown is won by love, and we love Him because through His wisdom we know He loves us[iii] and is trustworthy! Our reprieve from now on is not simple temporal happiness that fades under fiery trials, but rather the deeply profound, and lasting joy found in knowing the heart of God towards us regardless of what we are facing!

The word for the crown in the phrase “crown of life” is the same word used in Revelation 2:10. This is not a crown of royalty, which would be a diadem, but rather the word here is stephanon[iv] which is a crown of glory or honor that was given to Greek Olympians who finished their race with glory and honor in front of the full stadium of onlookers. True joy is not in status, wealth, or fame, but it is in seeking life-giving wisdom from God to trust Him in our brokenness, and find Joy in helping those in also in struggles, and if having victory in giving more happiness then we take from this world.

Consider it pure joy to be giving the Wisdom of God to seek Him first and only among your trials[v], to seek to give back happiness even in suffering, rather than take from what only will only wilt in the scorched sun. Wisdom is the crown of life to all who trust Him in the chaos of our daily struggles.

Joy endures the struggle because it knows the heart of God towards us is a crown of victory! Joy endures the night and brings us into the morning!

“Weeping may tarry for the night,
    but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalms 30:5)

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Footnotes:

[i] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/happiness/#DouAboValHap

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/202009/what-is-happiness-anyway

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/what-is-happiness-anyway

[ii] James is not attacking wealth or wealthy people per se, rather he is addressing a particular kind of wealth that is rooted in selfishness and greed. This is what happens we seek to gather pleasure in ourselves to ease suffering rather than see our joy from God.

[iii] 1 John 4:19

[iv] στέφανον (stephanon)

Noun – Accusative Masculine Singular

Strong’s 4735: A crown, garland, honor, glory. From an apparently primary stepho; a chaplet, literally or figuratively.

[v] Matthew 6:33