Indestructible Joy

Consider joy for a moment.  How much joy do you have in your life?  How many people do you know would describe you as joyful?  I imagine that many people are like me - I have moments of joy for sure, and in general live satisfied with the moment.  I'm not sure how much joy I would say I experience on a daily basis, and I'm not sure anyone would describe me to someone who doesn't know me as joyful.  I find that it is far easier me to understand, access, and live in the peace that Christ gives than in the joy we are to have when Christ lives in us.  It's a them I've visited at various times in my life.  I'm not great at answers - the only one I can come up with is that in the end, I still need more of Jesus.  

Today's musings were prompted by a chapter in the book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper.  I read the chapter today about indestructible joy, and I want to share some of his insights. 

"Salvation is not mainly for the forgiveness of sins, but mainly the fellowship of Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:9).  Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so this can happen.  If this fellowship is not all-satisfying, there is no great salvation.  If Christ is gloomy, or even calmly stoical, eternity will be a long, long sigh."

This simple thought struck me because for much of my young christian life I imagined heaven as not being all that exciting of a place.  It wasn't until I experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in communal repentance and worship during a revival that I finally understood the purpose of eternity with Christ.  

Piper made some other points about how from eternity Jesus has been the mirror of God's infinite mirth and about Jesus being the happiest being in the universe.  This is not often the way that we think of Jesus - and I think this is true of Christians as much as those who don't claim Jesus.  He then points out how this joy was not some pie in the sky joy that ignores the pain and suffering that exists in our world.  Jesus was, after all, "a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" according to Isaiah.  Piper states that "Indomitable joy does not mean there is only joy."  Jesus was complex, but not confused, and that "There were divergent notes in the music of his soul, but the result was a symphony."  

It's been a long time since I've connected with a pre-written prayer, but the prayer Piper wrote at the end of this chapter was pertinent enough to me, I'd like to copy the prayer in it's entirety for the benefit of others.  

"Father, it is a great comfort to us that you and your son are never glib and never gloomy.  We delight in the truth that you can be infinitely happy without being callous to our pain.  We stand in wonder that the light of Jesus' joy makes a rainbow in the tears on his face.  We long to be like this.  We want to be strong and unshakable in the joy of our faith.  But we don't want to be oblivious to the grievousness of our own sin or the pain of other people's distress.  O God, fulfill in us the purpose of your Son in promising that his joy would be in us and that our joy would be full.  Make the fruit of the Spirit - joy - flourish in our lives.  Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad in you.  Waken our slumbering souls from the sleep of listlessness.  Take away the lukewarmness of our hearts.  Fan the flame  of zeal for the glory of your name.  May Christ so dwell in our hearts with his indestructible joy that day by day we are conformed more and more to his glad image.  And so may we be a place of refuge and eternal refreshment for a hopeless, joy-seeking world of people who do not know they are starved for the glory of gladness of God in Jesus Christ.  In his name we pray, amen."