The Joy of God

Mariah was a beautiful young woman when her life was forever and dramatically changed.  She had been homecoming queen in high school, president of her sorority in college, and had been working her dream job for only a matter of weeks when the accident happened.  She was on her way home from work.  A normal drive, a normal day.  Suddenly, a semi-truck, whose driver had went into cardiac arrest while driving, smashed into Mariah's vehicle and pinned her car against the railing.  Her car rolled off the highway and she was crushed under its weight.

Before the wreckage was cleared entirely, Mariah was rushed to the emergency room to undergo extensive surgery to remove the shards of metal and glass from her body, most importantly her spine.  When she awoke, she found out that she had lost the ability to move her legs; she was paralyzed from the waist down.  She would have to go through years of rehabilitation to learn how to live a new life without the use of her legs.  The beautiful and able-bodied young woman was forced to accept that her life would never be the same and that she would need a wheelchair for the remainder of her life.

During her years of therapy and rehab, though, the nurses and doctors whom Mariah had been working with witnessed a young woman who never lost her infectious smile and energetic spirit.  One day, after her session, as Mariah was preparing to leave, one of the doctors asked her a question that caught Mariah off guard, "Mariah, how do you always have so much joy?  You've been through so much and yet you always make everyone feel so happy that you're here."

Mariah turned her wheelchair toward the doctor, smiled and then answered, "Do you want to know what I do everyday?  I wake up every morning and cry to God that I don't have the strength to do it another day, and I pray that He would give me the strength I need to do it.  So when you see me smile with a joy that's overflowing, it is all God.  I ask Him to come and fill me because I am empty of any joy without His help."

If only each of us would rely on God with such dependence, remembering that only in Him alone is there any joy.  Scriptural joy is two-fold.  The first is the joy of being in God's presence which is done through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit which teaches us all things, especially the joy of His commandments and His Word (Psa. 16:11, 19:8; John 14:26, 15:9-11).  It is thus through reliance upon the Lord that we receive His joy.

The second part of the biblical concept of joy is dependent upon suffering.  In fact, Scripture says that it is through suffering that our joy is refined and made sure (Rom. 5:1-5; James 1:2).  This does not mean that we should seek trial and suffering, only that we should remember that it is through suffering that we become more dependent upon the Lord for our joy and strength.

Far from saying that suffering will be any less difficult, rather, we will understand that suffering serves eternal purposes that make us better Christians and, like the story of Mariah, better witnesses of the power of God.  Let us then look to the Lord, through the torn flesh of His Son Christ Jesus, so as to be filled with a perfect and holy, inexpressible joy!