Let Your Heart Be Joyful
What has happened to all your joy?
-- Galatians 4:15a
This is supposed to be a joyous time of year. We are celebrating Christ’s birth. We gather with family and friends we don’t see nearly enough. We see good where normally we wouldn’t. We give to others out of our own bounty. Yet there is always someone determined to zap the joy of every moment.
Do you have one of those people in your life? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? I tell myself it’s like one of those half-full glasses type of things. I tell myself to pray about it. I tell myself to feel sorry for the person who is so determined to see problems and issues where none exist. I marvel at the unhappiness of someone who needs everyone else to be just as unhappy.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul thought the Galatians might have lost the joy that came from their salvation because of legalism. Rules can do that to anyone. A person can get so caught up in doing what the rules say that she loses her joy.
It happens when you focus so much on your own inadequacy as a sinner that you don’t see how far you’ve come since you’ve been saved. Joy flies away when you repeatedly condemn yourself for falling short of the standards Jesus set rather than accepting His forgiveness and forgiving yourself.
Legalism stresses performance rather than relationships. It determines that the perfect holiday meal is the goal rather than a wonderful time of fellowship that includes a holiday meal. It makes you feel guilty rather than loved if everything isn‘t perfect. And, let’s be honest here, when is everything ever perfect?
Years ago I watched a wonderful Christian woman disintegrate over something totally ridiculous. She was heading up an assembly and one of her co-workers told everyone to sit down when they needed to remain standing. You’d have thought the world ended at that moment. Everyone could see the steam rising from her as she struggled to control her anger. Most folks would have made a joke and let it go. I don’t remember much about that evening but I remember her overreaction to something so minor.
It makes me wonder if that’s where our joy goes -- in overreacting to small things that really don’t matter. Who cares if your uncle is late -- again? Who cares if someone spills a glass of tea? Who cares if things aren’t the way they’ve been for the past 20 years? What matters are the people who gather to love one another and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.
I don’t think it’s possible for you or I to fill others with joy. That’s something that comes when they invite Jesus into their lives. It comes when they stop worrying so much about what doesn’t matter and focus instead on what does.
This is such a joyful time of year. Be still and be glad, in your heart and deep into your soul. For unto you a child is born. A Savior. Born to bear the sins of the world. Oh, what news of great joy!
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