ALWAYS JOYFUL?
I was a 19-year-old kid with a young faith that was simple and full of fire, at least that was how I saw it. Much like today, I guess, almost 30 years later, I just said what I thought was correct, trying to apply the Bible in what seemed the most obvious way. It was what my friends and I referred to as a Posse night, and tonight we were going to hang out at one of the girls’ homes. Her father was in residential construction, very well off, a sort of “self-made man”, tough but quite sweet spirited. Her mother was a prophetess. A powerful woman of faith who moved in the gifts of the Spirit often giving a word of encouragement or prophecy to the Church in dramatic fashion. On this particular night, however, she was struggling physically and began sharing a bit of her fight, a sort of peek behind the curtain, with me and my friend Pete. I do not remember what the struggle was, just that as she was relating it, it had something to do with people not understanding her pain and being very frustrated. In my attempt to encourage her I quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Always be joyful”
I was immediately met with a well intended correction. I’m sure it was intended to open my eyes to a greater level of suffering than my 19 years of life had provided. Perhaps she hoped to expand my ability to relate to those God may ask me to encourage in the future, or maybe she was frustrated that I seemed to be dismissing her pain, Jesus Juking it by throwing out a scripture spell. “You can’t just tell people to ‘Always be joyful’. It is too simple” she said. “You have to be more aware of their feelings and what they are going through. People can’t just always be joyful” . . . . . . I was stunned. Maybe I read it wrong. The Bible clearly said that this should, in fact, be our attitude as believers. It is, however, 30 years later, one of those commands in the Word that does seem impossible. Twenty twenty has not helped for many. Social media and the internet have revealed the cry of many who just want to be seen, validated and understood rather than have ancient sayings that are clearly ridiculous thrown at them. Having gone through, and seen others go through experiences that are clearly designed to steal away joy, I have often wondered if maybe Paul intended this more as hyperbole than anything else.
I am sure we all have seen people who seem to go through great struggle and not be knocked off the ball. My mind often drifts to my mother, a faithful believer whose life did not go the way she envisioned when she was a young talented teenager starting her college education. Divorce, financial struggle and raising 5 kids on her own created a very different path than the young woman must have imagined in 1958. However, those who knew her or had even the most casual contact with her and her faith would describe her, I would bet, as a person of joy. Others can endure similar challenges and never seem to pull themselves out, constantly brooding about what could have been, should have been, “why me-ing” the rest of their lives. I do not intend to oversimplify or black and white this. Most of us are probably in the middle, finding ourselves in times of sorrow and frustration and other times of joy.
If we look at the Bible, its authors, especially Paul, often encourage us to be joyful. The frustration comes because it seems as if having joy is a verb, something we do or conjure up: “consider it all joy when you fall into many trials” (James 1:2), “Always be joyful”, “Always be full of joy” (Philippians 4:4) . . . It’s like a quippy sport’s brand logo encouraging us to Just do it or Protect this house, Never stop exploring, Always be joyful . . . We try to make ourselves joyful, and the frustration only results in more frustration. Things aren’t getting any better, I have made too many mistakes, the world itself is just getting too bad, too evil, too difficult. We turn our eyes toward any number of things and find the challenge too overwhelming to always be joyful.
JESUS JUKING OR GENUINE ENCOURAGEMENT?
Paul didn’t write these words as a stand-alone though. Look at the whole thing. . . 1 Thessalonians was written to a group of believers who had come to faith and quickly met with persecution (read Acts 16-17). As a result of the ministry of Paul and Silas, many Jewish folks, Gentiles and “prominent women” had become believers. The Jewish power brokers became jealous and stirred up a mob, starting a riot that literally shook the whole city looking for Paul. Unable to find him (because the believers had sent him away in the night), they went after the new believers. Many Biblical historians believe that the Thessalonian Church was primarily Gentile implying they were persecuted not only because of their religious beliefs but their culture and biogeographic background as well. Interestingly, the Jewish persecutors seem to have had both religious and political motivation for their actions. Paul was not disregarding the fear they must have felt or even the doubts they may have had. He was not tossing aside what they were experiencing in this wild and dangerous world. He wrote Thessalonians to encourage them in how to maintain their young faith in the face of situations that would certainly otherwise destroy them. To these he said:
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Paul connects a few things together that if left unseen, we could continue in a frustrated faith that no one watching will be drawn to and that we ourselves may walk away from. Most of us understand that we must pray, what praying always looks like is for another conversation. Finding ourselves praying when things seem, “other than what was expected” is not unusual however. What about the last part? “Be thankful in all circumstances’. The New King James and many other translations say it this way, “In everything give thanks”. Wait, what?!! This seems like another one of those hyperbole statements Paul clearly can’t mean. ALWAYS be joyful, NEVER STOP praying, and IN EVERYTHING give thanks? “And you are saying he wrote this to a group of young believers who were being abused and mistreated and accused of rebelling against the very Cesar of the Roman Empire?’ Yes. . . yes I am.
THE THANKSGIVING KEY
Often we see these types of passages in the Scriptures as formulas for success or tests we must pass. We try doing them to make our life better, responding to them as self-help prescriptions rather than disciplines that help to strengthen genuine faith, and often wind up more disappointed than we started. “If I can just be a happier person, pray all the time and be more grateful then things will change”. We fail to miss what Paul is telling the Thessalonians here. He is talking to them about how they are to walk out their faith with each other despite what is happening around them, whether or not it looks the way they had hoped. The key to the whole thing seems to be this last part – In EVERYTHING give thanks. Here he has connected the experience of joy to the action of thanksgiving.
I don’t think He is referring to some oversimplified, worked up protogratitude that simply politely says “thank you” for the things we enjoy about our lives. Something akin to true thankfulness but misses just to the side of the mark, like a wide-open shot in a soccer match that deflects awkwardly off the post with a resounding and disappointing, “Doink”. Paul speaks here about a genuine thankfulness that removes our eyes from ourselves, our abilities, our possessions, and our surroundings, then fixes them squarely on the Giver of Life Himself. We all go through or will go through, times of struggle, some more, some less. Someone is overwhelmed by exclusively first world problems like the escalator being broken at the mall and having to walk the stairs, while another who lives right down the road, may have had their whole world destroyed by an abusive spouse who psychologically destroyed their spirit then walked out to destroy everything else. Another may have found themselves unemployed and facing unimaginable debt or wondering how they will feed the kids. They may be the victim of racial prejudices or have lost a loved one in a global pandemic. Fear and anxiety, even suicide are at all time highs and Paul still says IN EVERYTHING give thanks.
FROM THANKS TO STRENGTH
In Protogratitude 2, we talked about how Faith and thanksgiving are in a positive feedback loop, with the nature of both taking our eyes off ourselves and fixing them on God the Father. It seems here that Paul believes that in everything, every circumstance we have something for which we are to be grateful, recognizing God in it and thus finding Joy, unspeakable and full of glory. When we find even one word of thanks in the face of the storm, we stir up joy, and not a proto-joy that comes from our own effort, but the Joy of the Lord that is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Andrew Murray reflected on it this way:
In everything give thanks — this is both the mark and the means of a vigorous Christian life. It draws us off from ourselves and fixes the heart upon God. It lifts us above the world and makes us more than conquerors through Him who loved us. It places our peace, our happiness, our life, beyond the reach of circumstances . . . it teaches us what joy there is in the kindness and love of God, and makes that the key-note of our life. – Andrew Murray Thy Will Be Done
A thankful heart that recognizes the hand of the Giver is a defining characteristic of the true believer and the fuel by which we are changed, finding a true joy that draws others towards the Cross. These are the Christians the world is looking for, the ones they are in deepest need of. They do not require the assistance of nice people who speak Christianese and don’t want to offend, often seeming no different from themselves – happy people who simply self-identify as Christians. No. They need to know Joyful believers who prove that true happiness is of God and who live a life of Joy because they recognize the hand and presence of God somewhere, in all things, regardless of the circumstance.
In everything give thanks. This puts our hearts outside the reach of Circumstance and reminds us that nothing can remove us from the Love of God. If the only thing we find in our current struggle is that we are not dead and that we are still children of the Living God then that just may be enough to stir up Joy and in turn find the strength to press on, to live in Freedom when it appears you are living in persecution, because your heart is freely joyful.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39
If all other words have failed you, and everything seems to crumble around you, give thanks that when the dust clears and all seems hopeless, the Love of God remains. In this way, stir up joy and in that joy, find strength. So, In EVERYTHING give thanks, and ALWAYS be joyful.
The Drum Speaks 