The Joy Set Before Us

-

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

I remember when joy finally unpacked its bags and settled down to become a permanent resident in my heart. It was a major milestone along the road on my spiritual journey. (Hmm. Mixed metaphor. How to fix? Okay, pretend I live in an RV.)

Before then, joy came and went, staying overnight, or for a few weeks at a time. And even when it was here, the delight was always overshadowed by the spectre of death and pain that haunts our earthly existence—the threat of happenings in my life that could send it packing, or even destroy it altogether.

Then one day it came to stay, with little fanfare, bringing its friend peace with it. I don’t remember the date, or the circumstances, just the quiet coming into the depths of my being in a way I knew was forever.

Joy moved in when I finally got a good glimpse of the end of the journey. When eternity finally became more real me to me than this present mortal life. I caught sight of the joy set before me, and everything between here and there faded into relative insignificance.

There is no such thing as an unhappy ending for one who belongs to Jesus. For one who has put their trust in Him, pain will always be temporary. Joy will be eternal. That’s why the Christmas bells peal wide and deep. The width and depth of God’s grace and love have swallowed up death and pain forever.

We have to wait a while. But only a while. One day God will wipe away the tears. When that truth really dawns in our hearts, joy will find an eternal home there.

This post is in memory of my father, who went to heaven on December 22, 1953.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Ways to Open Your Heart to Renewal

-
The beginning of a new year is a natural time for thinking about renewal. We say good-bye to an old, tired year and look with hope and expectation to a new one. A clean page. A fresh chance. A time to think about how to make our future better--more productive, more significant, more successful, more joy-filled. For Christians, thoughts of renewal usually revolve around God. We belong to Him forever, but we are vacillating human beings, and our relationship with Him can easily stagnate. We need times of refreshing. We need to come again to the fountain of living water. We need to long for Him so deeply that it drives us back into His presence. Thankfully, God prompts that longing. He never forces Himself back into our lives, but the restlessness we feel without Him invariably draws us. So what to do when we feel the restlessness? When we become aware that something's not right in our spirits? God is the One who must rescue us from the doldrums of spiritual lethargy, but there are st...
Read more

My Truth, Spoken in Love

-
Image
As I’m sure all of you know, I have a policy of not sharing opinions about politics on Facebook. I don’t believe Facebook is a great platform for discussing things that we all tend to feel passionate about, unless those passions are strongly loving and able to be expressed positively. But I am challenged by my friend, Gina Bell’s post, to break with my tradition about that policy this once. At least the politics part of it—not the loving and positive one. I hope I can express my beliefs lovingly and positively here. I never want to offend anyone, not because I’m afraid of their reaction, but because I don’t want to hurt anyone, or add more heat than light to whatever issue we’re talking about. I want everything I share here to be not only truthful and loving but uplifting and profitable for making the world a better place. So here goes: my break with tradition—my thoughts on the current political climate in the U.S. Like many of my Facebook friends, I am worried ...
Read more

Five Common Myths About Sharing the Gospel

-
Image
This article was originally posted in the FECB blog on January 22, 2013 We mean well.   We really want our friends to know Jesus.   But too often we approach them with wrong ideas in our heads.   If we really want to be effective witnesses, we should be aware of five common myths about evangelism. Myth #1: There are two kinds of people:   them and us.   It's a mistake to see everyone as being on one side of the fence or the other.   That's not the appropriate metaphor.   There's no fence.   There's a road, and we're all walking on it.   For sure, there's a point in every person's journey when they choose to follow Jesus. But it's only a step along the path.   The road continues.   None of us has arrived until we get to heaven, and we're all learning as we go.   The people we want to share Jesus with are just fellow travelers.   Realizing this opens up a whole new way of seeing others, and it will cha...
Read more