Live Dead Joy: 30 Days of Living and Dying with JesusSample

“Joy in the Morning”

We have the misguided conception that joy and sorrow are opposites. Joy may well come in the morning (Ps. 30:5), but it also comes in the “mourning.” When God takes the “u” out of mourning, it can lead to dancing (30:11). Unfortunately, there is often too much “you” (and me) in our mourning, which is self-pity—and self-pity is a joy quencher.

William Hentry Temple Gairdner was a missionary in Cairo at the turn of the twentieth century with the Church Missionary Society. His best friend was a man named Douglas Thornton. Gairdner and Thornton—though polar opposites—were fast friends and indivisible colleagues. They trusted and depended on each other. When Thornton died (in his early thirties), Gairdner was at his bedside. The presence of Jesus was so strong in that little room that Gairdner, despite his sorrow, could not help but rejoice. Immediately after Thornton went to be with Jesus, Gairdner slipped out of that room and realized: “Joy and sorrow are not antithetical; they mingle together all our lives long.”

William Blake (1757–1827) said it well in his poem “Auguries of Innocence”:

Man was made for joy and woe;

And when this we rightly know,

Thro’ the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine.

Under every grief and pine

Runs a joy with silken twine.

Very few of us live with unmitigated joy or sorrow. The normal Christian experience includes equal measures of both. We have the promise before us of an eternity without tears of sorrow, but our present reality must include suffering and pain. The wonder of Jesus is that He makes this fellowship sweet. When we endure trials and disappointments with our eyes on Him, He has the capacity to give us a measure of His joy—even in tragedy.

With my own eyes I have seen this. I have seen a family rejoice in spite of the sorrow that their father languishes in prison. I have seen a mother praise God even when her child suddenly died. I have felt in my own heart an intimacy with Jesus—a joy inexpressible and full of glory—when I have turned my disappointments over to Him. There is joy in both the morning and the mourning.

Pray for the Unreached:

Yemeni Muslims of Northern Yemen

11,939,000

0.0% Evangelical

Pray that God would pour out His Spirit on the Yemeni people. Pray that they would be powerfully saved and empowered to be His witnesses (Joel 2:28-32).