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Hi everyone! I trust you’re enjoying this beautiful Thursday! I certainly am. When I turn a little to the side from my computer monitor and look out the window, I’m delighted to see the cloudless blue sky above, the rays of sunshine streaming down past the eaves of the Adult Lounge, and the splash of red blossoms from the colorful bush that’s right across from my office. It’s a lovely day here at church, and God’s goodness is evident all around.

We’ve talked about His goodness inside the office, too. We have a regular staff meeting at church each week, where we take some time to catch up on news, to coordinate our planning, to pray at length for requests that have come in and for other concerns we know about, and generally to share and encourage each other with good conversation. This week, we had a delightful conversation about joy in the Christian life. Aldo reminded us of the familiar verse in Nehemiah 8:10 which tells us that “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” That led to a number of shared reflections about what joy is, why and how it gives us strength, and what place it has in our lives as followers of Jesus. It was an encouraging time of discussion, and a healthy one.

It’s my personal opinion that joy doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves in the church. On the contrary, sometimes it’s badly mistreated. Over the years, I’ve even known a few people who seriously believe that the best indicator of strong spiritual life is being grumpy, sad, continually depressed, and unpleasant to be around. (Well, maybe they wouldn’t put it that way—but that’s the impression they always gave me by the way they behaved.  I should perhaps stress that I knew them in other cities and churches, not here!) 

Of course, there’s an appropriate place in a Christian’s life for the full range of emotions. Some days we are sad or discouraged. Some things make us unhappy, even downright angry. Some of us face challenges right now where it’s entirely right to feel other things that might overshadow a sense of joy. Ecclesiastes says it so well: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven … a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (3:1, 4). In this broken world, we don’t dance and sing for joy all the time, every day.

But the question isn’t what feelings are OK to feel. The question is: what is God’s ultimate goal for us? The answer to that question, at least in part, is joy! Heaven won’t be full of depressed, sad folk. It will be filled with praise and thanksgiving and joy—because that is what God’s presence inspires, and that is what we were created for. Psalm 30:5 puts it this way: “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” So even now while we walk through this world, with its mixture of beauty and sadness, we’re reminded that the fruit the Spirit of God produces is not sorrow, but joy and peace (Galatians 5:22), and our Bibles continually encourage us to let joy be the thing that characterizes us as we walk with God.

Earlier that same morning before staff came together, I was reading in my hymnbook, and guess what hymn turned up when I flipped to the next page?

Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before You, opening to the Sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

I’m usually pretty sure the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me something I needed to hear. So my thoughts have circled around the subject of joy over the past few days, and it’s been good.

I’m grateful to be part of a church family where I see the signs of God’s joy on people’s faces and hear it in their voices from week to week. We share our sorrows with one another too, of course, and do our best to walk with each other through the darker valleys. But I sense that there is a spirit of joyfulness among us, and a desire to live together in the light of our Lord’s love as much as possible. It’s a good thing. It encourages our hearts, and it points our friends and neighbors toward Jesus as well.  May this be a joy-filled week for us all, however things unfold.

On other fronts, we’re back into the theme of “lessons for the family in Genesis” again this coming Sunday. This week we’re going to spend a little time thinking about Judah, one of Jacob’s 12 sons. If you’re looking to read ahead and your time is limited, you might find it helpful to take a peek at our Scripture reading, which will come from Genesis 37:17-27 and then chapter 44. The overall theme this week has to do with the way Judah grows—transitioning from a rather poorly-behaved, self-centered man into someone who cares for others and adopts a servant’s attitude. You’ll see that transition clearly when you compare the two chapters.

If you want to dig deeper, Genesis 38 is also all about Judah, and it illustrates the same development. It has some odd cultural elements that require a bit of explanation, but we’ll save that for Sunday. If you decide to read in chapter 38, don’t get lost in the ancient marriage practices. Instead, pay attention to the change that you start to see in Judah’s heart and life. That’s the main point.

Well, that’s my news for this morning. Again, have a blessed and joy-filled week. I look forward to seeing you soon. 

—Pastor Ken