Just yesterday, a friend of mine was complaining to me how exhausted he was because he didn't get to sleep in. I replied, telling him how I was in the same condition. "But you're always so happy!" He said that as though my happiness completely invalidated my exhaustion and I was astonished at his thought process. This dialogue set me off on a long train of thought.
I am often told that I am always bright and cheerful, as though that means that my life is perfect. I had to realize that I often use this very idea as a mask. I hide behind the fact that people assume I'm sunny all the time, so that, as long as I keep smiling, no one knows that there is anything less than perfect going on in my heart.
I was also shocked the way in which he treated joy, as though it is rare and only certain people have it. My friend claims Christ as his own, as do many of my other friends who see joy in the same way. Have we not much to be joyful for? Almost every time people ask me why I seem so happy for no apparent reason, I have to reply, "Because Jesus loves me!". I have been redeemed! I am no longer an ugly, filthy, disgusting, broken, battered human being! I am an heir to the inheritance the omnipotent, eternal God has for us! I have been made pure, so that I don't have to be ashamed any longer! Today, in the text for the sermon, 1 Peter 2:9-10 was brought up:
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness, into his marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
I am chosen! I am of a people for God's own possession! I have been called into His marvelous light! I have gone from not being a people, having no real identity, to being of the people of the Most High! I did not have a purpose, but now I have the most awesome purpose ever!!!! Are we so immune to Christ's love that we cannot feel this joy? That we cannot even ask the Holy Spirit who is living right there inside of us to fill us up with it? Joy is abundant and free! We have only to ask!
