Be Joyful
By Shirley Mitchell
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
For thirty minutes, she laughed and cackled in her bed. It must have been thirty minutes. She rolled around in those covers laughing until her ribs hurt. I was spending the weekend with my daughter. When we tried to go to sleep, she just laid in that bed, hooted, and cackled at something that her friend had told her at school. It was so contagious that I laughed, too. She kept saying in a deep voice, “The sheep is in the stew.” Now, isn’t that the most ridiculous thing? You must think even if you were there you wouldn’t get it. As I have spent more time with my daughter Mikayla this fall, I have seen her fall on the floor laughing in the bathroom at a restaurant. She can laugh in a crowd of friends, or she can laugh even if no one else is laughing. My husband and I affectionately say that Mikayla loves to “goob” it up. Almost every day, this child laughs hysterically over the silliest of things.
I couldn’t help but remember my childhood when I would laugh so hard at the table that I would fall to the floor doubled over laughing. My eyes would leak tears. I only stopped laughing when it hurt so badly, or I couldn’t breathe. My father would look at me with so much pleasure on his face. He would smile widely and just watch me rolling around until I could control myself. God has been speaking to me all year asking where did my gift of laughter go? Where was my smile? Where was the girl whose parents talked about her giggle box? Where was the girl whose parents said that her middle name, which meant happy, was the right name for her?
Giggle girl had slowly faded away. When I was a young girl, I was picked on mercilessly by the boys. They told me that I was ugly and weird. I remember one boy said on the first day of school about me, “They get uglier and uglier every year.” Somewhere along the way, I started to believe it. I didn’t want to call attention to myself to receive any of their ridicule. I distinctly remember one day walking home from the bus stop and saying aloud to myself, “Wipe that smile off your face. You are stupid to think you have any right to smile. Don’t you dare laugh. You are too dumb to be so happy.” My face turned plain and drab through these self-verbal beatings so that I could blend into the crowd and not suffer under the harsh words of bullies.
Later in life, the girl who wants to have fun was screaming to be let loose. She found a way out – through college parties and bars. I smiled and lit up again. Of course, those places are deceiving trips to nowhere except emptiness, brokenness, and sorrow.
When I learned that I was pregnant with Mikayla, I came back to the Lord for her. God revealed to me who He is and transformed me into someone brand new. I can’t even recognize the girl that I was previously. I feel true joy now. It is not fleeting happiness or superficial laughter but joy that doesn’t fade. I have learned to abide in Him by obeying His commands so that I can have His complete joy (John 15:10-11). In the hardest of circumstances, I have learned to choose joy.
However, God has been showing me this year that I may know true joy, but I don’t wear joy always. I am still being “had.” The enemy is still deceiving me. He didn’t steal it from me in a crisis but through my same old enemy – blending in. In an effort to blend into the engineering development environment and the very “khaki” culture, I take the full glow off my face. Just like Moses wore a veil when he came down from the mountain with God, I cover my face of joy. Since it is concealed, the joy wears off eventually,. God has been thumping me to be peculiar and to just be who I am in Christ in all situations. He is telling me be joyful – always! He wants me to radiate joy. His joy should be evident and not cloaked by a culture that promotes serious faces as the height of professionalism.
In a broken and bleeding world, we need joy. The world needs to see the peculiarity of believers who have true joy. I’m not talking about the silliness like the stage my daughter is going through. I’m talking about joy that defies our sorrows. When fear creeps in or tears overwhelm us, we make a conscious decision to choose the joy of the Lord. Sometimes all we can hold onto is the joy that is coming when we are at home with the Lord. Some of us haven’t radiated joy in so long that I don’t think our mouths can move to smile anymore! Now, these smiling muscles are some of the easiest workouts that you or I could do. Some of us are like a woman holding her purse out in a busy inner city for any robber to run by and grab. We can’t let the enemy run by us and grab our joy any longer! We need to guard our joy. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that the joy of the LORD is our strength. When we let the enemy steal our joy, he is stealing our strength! We are weaker! Medical science has proven Proverbs 17:22 which says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Or as the Message says, “gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.” Laughter and joy bring healing – physically and spiritually!
Was there ever a time in your life when you were fooled by the enemy to let him steal your joy? Is there any incident in your childhood where you had your joy stolen? How would your closest friends describe you now? Would they say that you just seem like someone who only knows superficial laughter? Or maybe they think you only have temporary happiness depending on your circumstances? Or perhaps they see an unexplainable joy through crisis, tears, and fears? Can they see a woman who is abiding in her God and experiencing the complete joy that only He can give? Oh, beloved, how I pray this is true for you.
Pray with me:Almighty God, You are wonderful in all Your ways. We praise You, Lord, that Your ways are higher than our ways. You are the author and giver of joy. Your joy is indescribable. Only You can bring the kind of joy that fills the deepest parts of our soul. In You we can rejoice. Our hearts can swell with joy (Isaiah 60:5). Help us to live by Your commands to us to be joyful always and to understand that this is how You intend for us to live. It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.