Choose Joy

 

I recently took a trip with a friend to London.  Although the trip itself was wonderful, it was plagued with delays.  Every time we went to a bus stop, the bus has left the stop, or if we go to the Tube, the train had just left the station.  The last few days of traveling was frustrating and annoying as our flight from Dublin to Philadelphia was delayed by 2 hours, which started a cascade of trying to get a flight to Charlotte.  When I was supposed to come back by Wednesday night, I ended up coming back by Friday afternoon.

But even on the flight from Dublin to Philly (knowing in the back of my mind that I will miss my flight to Charlotte), I heard God telling me to "choose joy".  How can I choose joy when there's been so many delays?  How does one define "joy" in the middle of annoyance?

Defining joy is quite difficult for me as this is similar to happiness.  But I guess you can see joy as an extreme emotion of happiness, satisfaction, and great pleasure.  But defining joy in the context of the Bible is even more difficult.  There is a different level and element to this type of joy which involves the presence of God in the situation that you're in.  

I found this article while doing some research and I think this pretty much summarize how I believe joy should be defined from the Bible:

'Joy is a choice.

Rick Warren gave us this definition of joy: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”'

And that's what happened.  I eventually made it to Charlotte and everything was alright.  And despite my lack of faith recently in my continuing search for meaning within deconstruction, I do believe that there is a God who is still in control of our lives.  Despite my choices of taking this route to go to London and back, God wants me to find joy in the frustration.  And of course, this is definitely a "first world problem" in that I had this luxury to fly to another country, enjoy my visit, and come back.  There are many people still starving and fighting for a chance for freedom.  And in that, and not in a selfish way, I do thank my God for the richness that He has provided, both in joy, happiness, contentment and physical resources.  

I thank God for not dying in the ocean.  Or crashing on land.  That I didn't spend another night in Philly.  That I live and wake up to see another day.  I thank God for eating some good food when I got home and sleeping eleven hours afterwards.  And in it all, God presence in my and your frustration and struggles should bring us great joy in that He's there in control of everything.