The stumbler doesn’t aim for joy. Joy is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes. — David Brooks, The Road to Character
Joy is evasive. Look for it, and you’ll catch a glimpse here and there. When you turn to look at it head-on, it vanishes, vapor trailing the djinn. You can only see it peripherally. It’s cagey, joy.
Where did it go? How to capture it, keep it in sight?
The answer is found in looking, in aiming, for something else entirely. It’s when you, and I, focus on other matters that joy arises unbidden and unforced. Joy comes as a gift when you least expect it. At those fleeting moments you know why you were put here and what truth you serve (David Brooks, The Road to Character).
Paul, in Philippians: Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-4, NASB).
Or David: I shall run the way of Your commandments, / For You will enlarge my heart (Psalm 119:32, NASB).
Neither man is pursuing joy; they’re pursuing God. The pursuit defines their lives, as does the struggle. They “stumble,” but they stumble forward.
But she repents and is redeemed and tries again, a process that gives dignity to her failing. The victories follow the same arc: from defeat to recognition to redemption…Each struggle leaves a residue. A person who has gone through these struggles seems more substantial and deep. And by a magic alchemy these victories turn weakness into joy (David Brooks, The Road to Character).
Not magic, though. No. A God-encounter: You will make known to me the path of life; / In Your presence is fulness of joy; / In Your right hand are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11, NASB).
Joy found in pursuing Another. Joy found in recognizing weakness and allowing God to work through it to glorify Himself: Concerning this [thorn] I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:8-10, NASB).
Joy. Suffering. Struggle. Joy again, found not in a dedicated pursuit of it but in aiming for something else.
Image: Paul Simpson (Creative Commons)