There’s a Christian song that’s been bopping around my brain lately called “Joy” by For King & Country. And it’s got me thinking: Is the act of choosing joy much the same as the act of following Jesus?
“Oh, hear my prayer tonight, I’m singing to the sky
Give me strength to raise my voice, let me testify
Oh, hear my prayer tonight, ’cause this is do or die
The time has come to make a choice“And I choose joy”
I’m struck by the parallels. Here are the biggies.
It’s just that, a choice.
Following Jesus is a choice made daily. I can follow HIS good and perfect path or I can choose my own self righteous way. I can walk with Jesus today and seek HIS council or I can listen to the self-seeking wisdom of the modern world. I can fill my mind and words with praise and thanks or I can fill it with empty social media feeds and fake news. Much in the same way it’s a conscious decision to choose JOY. I can choose to hang my hat and my heart on the fears, resentments and disappointments of yesterday or I can hug with hope the promise of a new day. I can choose to be angry that my husband forgot (again!) to put a new liner in the trash can or I can be happy that he took out the trash. We can be annoyed that the person in front of us at the checkout line has 23 items when the express sign clearly says “14 items or less” or we can remember that time when, already late (again!) picking up the kids,
It means less of ourselves to make room something else.
We are called to be more like Jesus, which mean, by way of cause and effect, we are to be less like naturally-inclined sinful selves. As we grow in Christ we are to put our childish, selfish ways behind us (1 Corinthians 13:11) and cloth ourselves in the righteousness of God. Likewise, the things that often come between us and joy are the same things that come between us and Jesus. Cling to Jesus like there’s no tomorrow.
It means letting go.
It means letting go of yourself, of your vision of how your life, you events, your friends should act, be, unfold. Choosing Jesus can mean a complete sacrifice of how you imagine happiness — a concept much coveted, and encouraged by our modern society. But, in the inverse, it also means completely giving in to Jesus’ plan and path– which is far better then anything we can dream for ourselves. It means letting go of past wrongs because Jesus calls us to forgive. When we let go and forgive those who hurt us we can unclog the arteries for joy to flow. Letting go of lost dreams, babies that were never born, promotions never received, lovers lost to time. It means letting go of things to which we’ve clung; things that, if we’re honest, rob us of joy. And if we’re clinging to these haunts of the heart we cannot simultaneously cling to Jesus. Letting go means making room.
Faith.
Trusting Jesus is an act of faith. Choosing to believe that HE has our best interest at the heart of His good and perfect plan is an act of faith. Choosing to know in our hearts that HE will provide even when we can’t see how is an act of faith. We need to be okay with the fact that it may look different then our vision for how it should look. The truth is, His way is always be best way if we are brave enough, if we are faithful enough to follow him.
I clung for a long time to the idea my early twenties would be the best years of my life: idealized freedom and fun (read night clubs and heels for days); and glorified adventure to exotic parts (which, if I’m honest, was Southern California. Ha! It seemed a different planet to my sheltered, New England-grown, seventeen-year-old self). But when I became pregnant at 22 and helplessly watched my freedom and adventure shatter around me I unwittingly filled on those broken pieces with resentment, anger, and a sense of feeling “cheated”. The only thing I cheated was myself. All those year I licked those wounds, all that time I wished emptily for things I could never have robbed me of joy– I robbed myself!!! God gave me joy, wrapped up in a little blue blanket, that I was too blind, to self centered to fully give myself over to.
In much the same way we have to do the same when we choose to follow Jesus. We have to let go of the ways of our past; we have to have less of ourselves — less self-prioritization to make way for Jesus’s priorities.
We have to turn our back on what the world tells us we “deserve” and follow the only ONE who has our best interest — with the full scope of knowledge; the blessing of hindsight we all wish for is possessed and offered to us if only we choose to walk HIS good and perfect path!
You can CHOOSE to follow Jesus. You can put aside your willful sins and focus your eyes and heart on the one true Savior.
Jesus will carry your burden — take your heavy yoke– , lighten your mood, be all things to all men. We can CHOOSE joy.
Confessions of a Sinner 