A few years ago I heard about Marie Kondo and her “konmari method” of cleaning up and organizing your life. I’m sure you’ve heard about it, but essentially if your closet is completely out of control this method suggests you throw everything into a pile and go through it one by one. According to Marie Kondo, whatever doesn’t “spark joy” you set aside to give away and whatever does “spark joy” you keep. I’m a fan of being organized so I decided to give it a go. An hour into the task my closet was emptied onto my floor and I was regretting all my decisions. I had a headache, I had a royal mess and I was still waiting for that joy.  

Psalm 104 says wine is God’s gift “to bring joy to people’s hearts” and I was about at that point…just kidding, of course. I don’t actually like wine, but you see my point? Anything on my floor that was meant to “spark joy” wasn’t, and it really couldn’t even if I tried. Because at the heart of it all, even the prettiest, sparkliest shoes or the cutest sweater or the best bag with all the storage room can’t bring me the joy that my heart longs for. And it can’t bring you that kind of joy either. 

The world paints many beautiful pictures of what joy looks like. Maybe it’s that elated feeling you get on an amusement park ride, or that burst of happiness you feel when you hold your child or grandchild for the very first time. Maybe it’s the way you feel when you hug a friend for the first time in a long time, or that feeling you get when your favourite sports team wins a game that makes you jump out of your seat and cheer. Maybe it’s that feeling of adrenaline after a good work out, or that satisfying feeling you get with your first sip of coffee, or that burst of pride when you finish something you’ve worked hard on.  

All of those are amazing things, but most of those things are feelings based. If we’re honest, we know what the world has to offer in the joy department is really just temporary at best, and to be honest, sometimes it’s not even real. Feelings are fleeting, even if they’re good and genuine feelings or experiences. None of those things I mentioned earlier are bad – they’re all enjoyable in their own way. They just don’t last. If you keep looking for that source of fabricated joy, you’re never going to find what you’re looking for…

We live in a culture that prioritizes social media. Have you ever found yourself feeling down so you reach for your phone and scroll through Instagram or Facebook or Tiktok or X or whatever the newest, trendiest app is? That mindless scrolling helps you to feel a little better. The likes or hearts you receive on your posts boost your mood almost instantaneously. But the second you put down your phone, something changes, doesn’t it? While you’re scrolling, watching videos or buying something on Amazon, your body is releasing endorphins. This happy body chemical is doing its job to boost your mood, relieve pain, anxiety and stress. Unfortunately, endorphins don’t last – they’re almost like a tap you can turn on and off. It might bring joy for a little while, but it fades. You know it won’t make you truly happy. Neither will following trends – you’ll be caught up in an exhausting whirlwind of having to make sure you have the next best product, the newest phone, eat at the trendy restaurant or coffee shop, see the newest movies, wear the fad clothes and do the fad diets. And don’t forget about all those crazy “Tiktok made me do it” things.

The kind of joy the world is selling us falls flat. It doesn’t last, it might leave us with empty wallets, and it’s super fake. The world sells fabricated joy, but the gospel doesn’t. It’s good news of great joy for all people. It lasts forever, it won’t break the bank, and it’s true and real!

I would be remiss to write about feelings and then skip over this important topic. It is important to know and understand that God gave us emotions! Our Creator made us to emote, and we can trust Him with our emotions – the good, the bad and the ugly.  So what do we do when we feel messy and out of control? We can go to God, and ask for His help. He can reveal so much about ourselves to us when we ask, and we can sort through our emotions and feelings with wisdom. When things get difficult, because they will, we can go to our Father who loves us. When we are weak, His strength can give us rest.

We can rest in His peace when sadness arises, because all of us will experience sadness in our day to day lives.  Sometimes when things get hard, the enemy will strike, and loves to mess with our minds – often we can feel our emotions and feelings are who we are. Instead of believing this lie,  we can rest in the who God says we are. We are not our anger or our fear or our sadness, we belong to the Lord, and we are His children! 

I love Psalm 88 because it is a good example of this. It was written by Heman the Ezrahite. At the time of his writing this Psalm, he was in a dark place. He freely expresses his emotions to God, and at times when we’re reading it he might seem like he’s a little over the top and super extra with his words…

O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer, listen to my cry.For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. I am as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave. I am forgotten, cut off from your care. You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me. You have driven my friends away by making me repulsive to them. I am in a trap with no way of escape. My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for your help, O Lord; I lift my hands to you for mercy. Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? (Psalm 88:1-10)

In this Psalm, Heman is demonstrating that God can handle our frustrations and questions. He doesn’t feel threatened by our doubts or fears or feelings.  He starts out with the words “God of my salvation” which helps us to understand that he’s familiar with who God is, but then he asks God to be attentive to his prayer. So it’s almost like he knows God as his Rescuer, but also he’s not sure God’s really listening. Heman is all over the place – and I love it, because I too am a hot mess much of the time!

Honestly, the important thing to take from here is that even though Heman is a hot mess, he knows it and he knows what he needs. He comes to the Lord crying out day and night. DAY AND NIGHT. Constantly talking to God. We don’t really know what the suffering is that he’s facing, but it seems his struggle is ongoing and persistent, and his response is to pray through the pain.

And here’s what we can learn about it:

Heman goes to God when everything is hard. 

Heman goes to God with unanswered questions, crying his messy heart out to Him.

Heman goes to God with the knowledge that God is good even when his circumstances aren’t great and he doesn’t know how to or simply just can’t make things better. 

Heman goes to God with his heart laid bare before the One who already knows his situation.

Heman kept on asking God for help when it seemed no answer came.

Heman poured out his heart in faith even when it probably felt like his prayers were just evaporating into thin air. 

Heman really wrestled with knowing that God is able to take away suffering but that for some reason that he didn’t know or understand, God was not taking it away. 

Hard circumstances can shake us, and they do, don’t they? But here’s the thing – they don’t shake our God. 

Unlike a lot of other psalms, Psalm 88 doesn’t end with a hopeful resolve. It’s definitely open-ended and it ends in a sad place. But there’s joy knowing that we can bring our hearts to God who knows us and understands us. 

The God who knows and understands me knows that some of the things that bring me joy are just everyday things. A couple of weeks ago I squeezed toothpaste onto my toothbrush and it came out in a heart shape and it made me super happy. Then I went to go get coffee at my favourite cafe and saw that they have these tiny little take out cups for espresso and it was just the cutest thing! Or when my son was out for a walk and popped into the store for a drink and then saw a gift that he knew brother would love, he bought it and that just made my mama heart explode with joy! These are not huge, important things. These are just everyday moments of joy, but they’re little gifts from the Lord. I think that there is beauty in finding little bursts of joy in every day. It’s not necessarily fabricated joy, because it’s born out of the emotions and personality traits and maybe just the weird and whimsy that make up me. But it’s not true joy either..

True, Biblical joy is more than a happy feeling. It’s a lasting emotion that comes from the choice to trust that God will fulfill his promises, even when things are hard. 

First, it’s important to understand that God himself is the source of all joy:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22, 23 & 25

Joy makes this list and is one of the byproducts of the Holy Spirit living and dwelling in us. This chapter in Galatians tells us that it is possible to “live in the Spirit” and “walk in the Spirit” – meaning that He will naturally produce His fruit in our lives as we live for Him. That’s good news, right? Finding true joy isn’t difficult when you know God because God alone can produce true joy — and He does that naturally through His Spirit living in those who have put their trust in Him. 

It’s important for us to understand that only God Himself can give us the ability to respond to life’s difficult circumstances with this kind of joy, which often presents itself in contentment and satisfaction despite what we are going through. 

Okay, here’s where things get tough. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like true and lasting joy goes hand in hand with trials. And trials are tricky because, let’s face it, no one wants them. The thing is, trials reveal our hearts by the way we handle them. In difficult situations we need to ask ourselves some tough questions like this one – are we only looking for God’s blessings or are we truly looking to know, understand and love God?

When we are truly looking to God, we can choose to respond to life’s trials with joy when we consider God’s purpose for those times of suffering. There’s a wonderful example of this in Mark 4:35-41.

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Jesus is in a boat with seasoned fisherman who have been on this water many times. They are terrified at the storm – which means it must have been A PRETTY HUGE, PRETTY SCARY STORM. The disciples are freaking out and think that Jesus doesn’t care because He’s just sleeping on through, so they wake Him up and tell him so.

When Jesus rebukes the storm it can sound a bit harsh to us, but notice he doesn’t shame them for their response of fear. This is good news for us, because it means when we battle with our own fears and even feel shame that we have them, we can remember that God doesn’t shame us. He’s in the storm with us and He cares.

It’s comforting to know that Jesus cares and is sovereign over storms, but it’s also interesting to note that the whole reason they got into the storm to begin with is because they were obeying God. He was the one who told them to get into the boat in the first place! When things go sideways in our lives, sometimes we can wonder what we’ve done wrong. If you’re like me, I want to find whatever it was that I did so that I can not do.it again! But here, the storm was the result of obedience, and not sin. Sometimes our storms happen to teach us something that we wouldn’t know or understand if it weren’t for a difficult season.

Our relationship with God should be the most important thing in our lives. Our relationship with God will impact every other area of our lives. Everything we learn about and experience of God builds on our eternal relationship. That’s good news, right?

In the storm, the disciples learn something about him that they maybe wouldn’t have known if they weren’t being tossed all over the sea. They learn that Jesus is sovereign over whatever comes their way. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be in the midst of a terrifying storm one minute, and then total calm the next? The total calm of the sea should have filled the disciples with peace, but it didn’t. They were just as afraid when He calmed the storm as they were when they were in the midst of it! And honestly, I would have been too. In these few moments, the disciples are seeing Jesus as both fully human AND fully God, where He reveals Himself in His power to them. What a sight to behold! Here’s the thing – the disciples kind of need to see this over and over again so it will stick, because they’ll all face much bigger storms in their lives. From watching their leader and friend die on a cross, to being imprisoned and suffering because of their faith, to facing their own horrible deaths.

Don’t miss this – this is our loving God, who is so kind to the disciples that He lets them see more of who He is so that their faith would grow. This is the same God who loves us, and does the same for us in the midst of tumultuous times.

I think it’s natural for our first response to hard situations to be us freaking out, crying, phoning a friend, trying to problem solve…we aren’t always thinking of calling out to God like Heman in Psalm 88. If this is where you are at, and if I’m honest, I’m here too – then we can pray for God’s help to come to Him first. Sometimes He calms the storm, and sometimes He calms His children and gives them hope and peace and even joy!  

Oh, Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

So how do we see God’s plan through our pain?

Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James 1:2

This verse says, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” Notice the word count. Some other versions of the Bible translate it consider. It’s a word that means to examine. When you’re preparing for an exam of any kind, you’ll want to test your knowledge. When I was taking exams, I would write out as many things as I could remember and do that repeatedly, always adding more things until I felt prepared. We can also do that when we are going through a hard situation. We can think of and maybe write out potential reasons and benefits to gain a better understanding of what God may want to accomplish in it and through it. (Note that this is A LOT easier to do after the fact, and not so easy to do when you are in that season). 

When we first got married, my husband and I had plans to travel and do fun things together. Three months into our marriage, I got a positive pregnancy test while I was still in university. Definitely not in the plans! It also was not in the plans to have two kids just as I turned 25. But that’s exactly what happened. Now as I look back on happy baby pictures, I am ON THE FLOOR playing with my kids. I am chasing them in the park. I am doing all sorts of things that a normal mom would do with her kids, because the Lord allowed for me to have children at a time when my Lipedema was not compromising every area of my life as it is now. Doing this exercise of counting it all joy does not always mean having everything wrapped up in a bow. Sometimes it is just counting blessings that come in the midst of the storm. 

I work as a bookkeeper, so a lot of my day is money and finances. I know most people use plastic these days, but when I was a kid I had a piggy bank. Sometimes I would count the change in my piggy bank and often would be surprised that I had way more money than I thought. Tricky trials can be like the extra change in a piggy bank – the benefits that occur because of something bad that happens might just be a lovely surprise. I think of the old song that goes count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. When we truly count or consider what God is doing, we will know in our heart of hearts that our response should be one of joy.

We should also take note that this is not just some joy. It says in James 1:2 that we can experience all joy or joy to the fullest, and be completely and wholly joyful. Peter also writes about this kind of joy even in the midst of a variety of trials in 1 Peter 1:6, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. He teaches us that we can greatly rejoice even when we’re feeling heavy hearted. It’s important to note here that we can be grieved by trials and still find joy in the pain, because God has a purpose not only for the trial but also for the heavy grief we feel in the midst of it. The Hebrew word used for joy here is Simha and is actually translated joy inexpressible. It only occurs in the New Testament, and describes a joy so profound as to be beyond the power of words to express. 

If you know me, you know I love Corrie Ten Boom. If you have never heard of her, she was a Dutch Christian who helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust of WWII. When their home was raided after an informant tipped off the Nazis of their activities, the entire family was imprisoned. Corrie and her sister Betsy were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Corrie was miraculously released from prison just days after her sister had died there because of a clerical error – her name should have been on the extermination list but instead it was on the release list. If you’ve ever read the Hiding Place or seen the movie, you’ll know where I’m going with this. Even under some of the worst conditions that we could ever imagine, Corrie and her sister Betsy were full of joy that became contagious. This is what she says about joy in suffering:

With Jesus, even in our darkest moments the best remains and the very best is yet to be. Now, I know in my experience that Jesus’ light is stronger than the biggest darkness. In darkness God’s truth shines most clear. Jesus did not promise to change the circumstances around us, He promised great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to believe that God actually controls all things. 

Everyone has gone through or is going through something unpleasant right now. Suffering is not unique. Trials come for us all, in one way or another. But we can experience true joy in our pain when we trust that even our suffering is part of God’s good and perfect plans for our life. 

When we trust Him and follow him in obedience in the midst of our trials, that’s when we are filled with overwhelming joy that can’t be stopped, that is everlasting, and that bubbles out of our souls and into our lives. 

There’s an old hymn about just this, and when I think of it and read these words I can hear my mom singing with all of her heart. It goes like this: 

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still

And with all who will trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies

But His smile quickly drives it away

Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear

Can abide while we trust and obey

Or we’ll walk by His side in the way

What He says we will do, where He sends we will go

Never fear, only trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, then to trust and obey 

Let’s be happy in Jesus. He’s where we find true, everlasting, life changing joy!