- What if you could increase your sense of peace and well-being while you eat meals with your family?
- What if you could significantly increase your capacity to appreciate life and people?
- What if you could have such a profound joy that no one had the power to take it away?
- What if the path to joy was walking through the situation you fear?
Jesus offers this benefit to disciples, though the path is fraught with smoke and mirrors because reality is often different than our perception.
Through Sorrow to Joy
“So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy” (NLT, John 6:22).
Thriving on the Other Side of Scary
When you perceive everything is going wrong, this may be a clear invitation from God to get involved in organizational change. God wants to lead us out of an old system where we did not thrive through the wilderness to bring us to an unimaginably better place. It has to do with escaping from being a victim of other’s power-over to a place where no one can take your joy, even in this present life. While we may prefer choosing a shortcut to personal comfort, stories about the Exodus, Jesus, and the early disciples all describe a different path.
“’Yes,’ Jesus replied, ‘and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come’” (Lk 18:29-30).
(1) Very Good to (2) Not Good, to (3) Resolution
In Genesis 1, God created man, male and female. It was very good. But then, in Genesis 2, He saw they needed a helper. Existing created beings like the animals and the being in one of the two great trees were unsuitable helpers. God chose a new way, to split humans into two opposites, making a bigger whole.
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them… it was very good.” (Genesis 1:27-31a).
“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18).
Understanding God’s delight when opposites attract and learn to work things out highlights the possibilities available for couples who work through their differences to reach synergy, when the two together become much greater than the sum of two individuals.
The Upside-down Kingdom
True to the counter-intuitive nature of the Kingdom of God, complicated relationships may be God’s invitation to stay. In contrast, exceptionally good relationships may result in an invitation to leave to help a different people group.
Consider my two Bible readings this morning. First, in Tim Mackie’s Classroom, we studied how Rebekah left when no one wanted her to leave.
“’But we want Rebekah to stay with us at least ten days,’ her brother and mother said. ‘Then she can go.’.. “So they called Rebekah. ‘Are you willing to go with this man?’ they asked her. And she replied, ‘Yes, I will go.’ (NLT, Gen 24:58).
Then, in our family Bible.com group, we studied how Jesus stayed with His people, even though He knew He would be crucified. He saw that this was the way toward unstoppable joy.
Bible heroes frequently left places of comfort or willingly embraced awkward relationships to gain invincible joy.
Our Joy We Retain
(Rick Bergen, with help from Copilot)
Change brings discomfort,
It’s true for us all,
And those we engage with,
May stumble or fall.
Our passion is love,
With hearts open wide,
Without losing ourselves,
In the ebbing tide.
Mature servant leaders,
Embrace conflict and scorn,
Seeing the future,
For which they were born.
They savor the journey,
With hope in their eyes,
As they eagerly await,
The coming surprise.
By not giving to others,
The power to cause pain.
They live untriggered lives,
Their joy they retain.
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