A Root of Joy

There is amazing and peculiar joy in self-denial.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about joy and suffering and how strangely they're linked. James 1:2-4 tells Christ-followers to "consider it all joy" when trials and suffering come, because faith tested by trial produces endurance, and endurance results in depth and maturity of faith and personhood. I long for that. And yet I find it difficult to always rejoice during the rough seasons of life. It's easier to focus on the pain of the trial than on the process of refinement--trying to take joy in my small acts of suffering. Today something began to change.

I'm reading John Piper's What Jesus Demands of the World and came to Demand #10,"Rejoice and Leap for Joy". In the chapter, Piper talks about Christ's call of his followers to joy--through self-denial. Not self-denial as an end in itself (pride gets tangled up then), but self-denial in order to follow Christ. A quote from Jonathan Edwards struck me, "But whoever has tried self-denial can give in his testimony that they never experience greater pleasure and joys than after great acts of self-denial."

I would rather live close to my beloved family, not bear responsibility for a school and its people--before God and men--and frankly, most days I would not choose to navigate life as a single woman. And yet, I have often testified to the inexpressible joy God has given me in this place, and in this position. Joy in a city when I love the wide open space of country; joy as a leader when I think it would be nice to follow sometimes. Joy...as I see kids go deeper in their walks with Christ, as some hear--for the very first time--of His love for them, as I experience the unity of the Spirit in working with people from many cultures and denominations who have one thing in common--loving Jesus. Joy!

Today it began to make some sense. In my little acts of denying my own desires, out of love for Christ and the accompanying desire to obey, I am granted the gift of joy.... What an amazing privilege.