by Kat Silverglate ©2024

When our son was young and learning about the world, we did the verbal things parents do to make learning fun – mostly through invitations to respond.

Invitation: “The lion says…?” Response: “Roar.”

Invitation: “The cow says…”  Response: “Moo.”

When it got too easy, I’d go for silly. “If the animal says ‘brush your teeth,’ that means...?” Response: “She’s my mother!”

As his capacity for nuance grew, the verbal games went beyond the initial invitation and response to deeper connections. Invitation: “If you plant an acorn, what will grow?” Response: “An oak tree.” [pause pause pause… waiting for the next invitation]. “So doesn’t that mean there’s a whole tree hidden in every tiny acorn?” His face breaks open into the expression kids give when they are delighted by something that seems to too wonderful to grasp.

The Psalms begin with that kind of image. With a word picture that seems too wonderful to grasp. The Psalms begin with this:

The Psalms begin with a picture of a person planted by God in God. And while the verse does not use the word joy, Galatians gives labels to the fruit that emerges when the Spirit of the Living God is planted in the heart of a human:

If the Lord comes to live in your heart, joy is a promise.

In his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson tells the story of a dean at a theological seminary who periodically invites a student into his office to have a difficult conversation about their future with the institution:

“You have been around here for several months now, and I have had an opportunity to observe you. You get good grades, seem to take your calling to ministry seriously, work hard and have clear goals. But I don’t detect any joy. You don’t seem to have any pleasure in what you are doing. And I wonder if you should not reconsider your calling into ministry. For if a pastor is not in touch with joy, it will be difficult to teach or preach convincingly that the news is good… Delight in what God is doing is essential to our work.” See Long Obedience at 197. 

Theologian Timothy Keller takes the dean’s joy challenge beyond vocational ministers to us. In a 1993 sermon called The Search for Happiness, Keller begins his preaching on Psalm 1 by asking his congregation to filter everything he is about to say through this brutally honest question: “Am I a fundamentally and consistently happy person; and if not, how come?” To the Christ followers in the room, he put a finer point on the challenge. “Ask yourself all through this teaching (on Psalm 1), if I really know this, why am I so unhappy?” Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuLlePKzNQA.

Both Keller and Peterson go a mile deep and an inch wide on various misunderstandings about the fruit of the life of one rooted in the Lord. Keller speaks largely to those who have come to believe that joy is not really possible; Peterson to those who have taken joy completely out of the context of a life hidden in God. But neither waiver on this fundamental truth -- joy comes with a life of faith in Christ.

The gift that the dean gave to that seminary student was priceless. He tampered with his false notion of joy. He was living as if he had to put a lid on it while he struggled through school. Or, as if he’d find joy when he was finished or graduated or was the senior pastor of a congregation. Or the seriousness of his work justified his mood. Or his temperament justified his lack. But none of it was true. Joy doesn’t work that way. The dean took that tamper resistant sticker off the lid of that seminary student’s life and called him to task on God’s truth about joy. Could he live a lid-less life. Would he let God overflow from his vessel? Bubble out? Leak out? Leak in? Would he delight in what God had done, was doing and would do more than his grades, more than his position, more than his pursuits, more than anything else in his life?

Don Miller writes in his introduction to Blue Like Jazz:

“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve.  But I was outside the Bagdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone.  I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.  After that… I liked jazz music.  Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.  It is as if they are showing you the way [to love it.]” 

Isn’t that what the Psalmist is doing for us? In Psalm 1? Showing us the way to joy? Telling us to delight in the Lord and watch how He messes with our tamper resistant lids. Allowing the world to see the evidence of His fruit.

Our Mission -- November's Responsiveness Challenge:

In your mission pack, you will find a “tamper evident” sticker used by restaurants to keep a lid on a plastic up. If the sticker is broken, it means there is evidence someone has tampered with the lid. Is there a lid on your joy? Use that sticker in your journal or on a piece of paper to write about the joy in your life. Do you need to allow the Lord to tamper with your lid? To change your understanding of joy? Where it comes from? What’s available to you?  

You will also find four stickers in the shape of flowers. One for each week in November. At the start of each week, find a delightful truth about God. Write it down and put that sticker on the corner of the paper. Then meditate on it all week long. Ask the Lord to help you delight in the truth. In Him. Maybe even share it with someone. Ask the Lord to tamper with your lid on joy.

Amen?

Amen!