Right now in Texas, a woman named Andrea Yates is on trial for the crime of murdering her five children, ages 7, 5, 3, 2, and six months. According to news reports, she confessed to police that she led them one at a time into the bathroom of their family’s home and drowned them in the bathtub. When I first heard about this, I reacted as probably most of you did, in horror and disbelief. It seems inconceivable that any mother, any person, could so calmly and methodically take the lives of her own children. What could account for such a monstrous act? How can we explain such inhumanity? The truth is that we can’t fully explain it. No one really knows what was going through her mind when all this took place. We can’t really know if she was legally insane, as her lawyers have claimed. We do know that she had been depressed since the birth of her fourth child. But to violently snuff out the lives of her own offspring -- no one thought her capable of this kind of atrocity. Was there some kind of psychotic break; did she lose her grip on reality? Or did she simply become overwhelmed, feeling more and more isolated and stressed until this seemed like the only way out? Only God knows; there will always be something at the core of this tragic story that is hidden and unknowable.
I relate this to you because we all share something in common with Andrea Yates. As far as I know, none of us has ever committed such a terrible crime, or even remotely imagined such a thing (although it would be a mistake to think ourselves completely incapable of it). But at times our circumstances, also, can seem hopeless and overwhelming, with no way out. We all experience daily the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet. The truth is that from time to time, we all have ample justification for feeling discouraged. We’ve all experienced disappointments, both great and small. Everything from a failed casserole, to a failed job, to a failed marriage. We’ve all known loss, and pain, and sorrow; unmet expectations, broken dreams, shattered hopes. At times, the pain seems far away, the bad times all but forgotten. But at other times, the pain is so intense and unrelenting that it seems too much to bear, like some kind of migraine of the soul. And at those times, we wonder how a loving God could allow his children to suffer so; we’re tempted to abandon faith, and give ourselves over to despair.
In his recent book, entitled "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression," author Andrew Solomon makes an attempt to understand the roots of melancholy, to describe what it feels like to slide into depression.
He writes, "In depression, the meaninglessness of every enterprise and every emotion, the meaningless of life itself, becomes self-evident. The only feeling left in this loveless state is insignificance. Life is fraught with sorrows: no matter what we do, we will in the end die; . . time passes, and what has been will never be again."
Although Mr. Solomon does not profess to be a religious person, his words echo those of his namesake, King Solomon of ancient Israel, who wrote the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. And in that book, we read the following:
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
-- Ecclesiastes 1:2-8
Ever feel like that? As Solomon considers the fact that we all die, whether we are wise or foolish, diligent or lazy, pious or profane; as he considers the fact that all human works are temporary; that nothing we do, or make, will last forever, he says to himself, "What’s the point? Why bother?"
Jesus understood pain and loss. Isaiah chapter 53 refers to him as "a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering". He knew what it was like to suffer apparent failure, to be abandoned and betrayed. At the end of his life, the crowds turned against him, shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" One of his own disciples sold him out. And when he was arrested, the others all left him and fled; his closest friend, Peter, denied even knowing him. And on the cross, even God turned his back, as Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Because God is holy, and so when Christ took upon himself our sin and guilt, the Father had to turn away from his own Son.
Paul the apostle referred often to his sufferings and hardships. In Second Corinthians, he writes,
"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life." -- 2 Corinthians 1:8
Yet (and if you’ve been wondering where all this gloom and negativity is taking us, here it is), yet -- the Bible is absolutely jam-packed with expressions of joy and gladness. It is filled to overflowing with encouragements to God’s people to rejoice!
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. " -- Romans 15:13
"I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds." -- 2 Corinthians 7:4
"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! . . . Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" -- Philippians 3:1; 4:4
Not only that, but one of our distinctive characteristics; one of the things which identifies us as belonging to Christ, is joy. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul lists nine fundamental qualities that the Holy Spirit produces in the lives of believers, and one of these is "joy":
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." -- Galatians 5:22-23
Now, how is that possible? How is it that the Bible can, on the one hand, acknowledge the very real existence of pain and evil, in the world and in our lives, and yet still tell us to rejoice? How did Paul rejoice in the midst of persecution, and affliction, and suffering, and sorrow? How did Jesus? How do we rejoice, not just occasionally, but so much that it becomes one of our identifying characteristics?
Well, it’s not by pretending that everything in our lives is just peachy all the time. Too many sincere, well-meaning Christians, think that God expects us to be little Pollyanna’s, acting as if everything is wonderful, putting on that plastic sanctified smile when we come to church. "How are you doing, brother?" "Oh, fine, fine. Couldn’t be better," when the truth is that we’ve just had a horrendous week, and we’re wondering how we’re going to make it through another day. Too many people think that God wants us to be like those three monkeys, "See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil," covering our eyes and ears and mouths, refusing to see, or hear, or talk about, anything bad or upsetting. Why is that? Maybe we think that acknowledging sin and suffering would cast doubt on God’s goodness and power. Or maybe we’re afraid that admitting our struggles would undermine our faith, or the faith of others. So we just go on acting as though everything is fine, when everything is not fine. But God doesn’t want us to pretend. God calls us to rejoice in the midst of every situation; good or bad, pleasant or painful. He calls us to rejoice, not because we have no problems, but because Christ is greater than our problems, and Christ is working out his good purposes in and through our problems.
Nor can we find lasting joy by following after the world. People look for joy in music, art, culture. They look for joy in personal achievements or professional advancement. They look for joy in friendships or family relationships. They immerse themselves in pleasures of various kinds, or they go after money, or power, or influence. Sometimes they seek joy in entertainment or recreation. But all of those attempts are doomed to end in disappointment and failure. Many of these are good thngs, but none of them can satisfy our deepest longings. For as St. Augustine wrote, "Thou O God hast made us for Thee, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
Only God can supply what our hearts are truly seeking.
To illustrate that, let’s look at Psalm 126, one of the "Songs of Ascents" that the ancient Israelites sang together as they were traveling to Jerusalem for the three annual feasts. Listen as I read the first three verses of this Psalm:
When the Lord brought back the captives
to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
You can’t manufacture joy by force of will. Being joyful isn’t something you can just decide to do, it’s what happens as a result of doing other things. And here’s the first one: focusing your thoughts on what God has done for you. We need to praise Him for all He has done in choosing us, and saving us, and calling us. We need to thank him for the fact that, out of all the billions of people in the world, he chose us, and died for us, and drew us to himself; not because of who we are or what we had done, but simply because he loved us. Instead of dwelling on our difficulties and hardships, we need to fill our minds with thoughts of all the blessings we have in Christ -- peace and joy through the indwelling Spirit; freedom to approach God the Father in prayer; the assurance of his constant care and concern, provision and protection; the promise of his complete forgiveness, and perfect love, and limitless grace.
In Psalm 126, the Psalmist is looking back to that great day in 536 BC when the nation of Israel, people who had been captives in Babylon for fifty years, were finally allowed to return to their land. As he remembers that day, he says, "It was like a dream! We could barely believe it was happening! We were so overjoyed that we couldn’t stop singing and laughing! Surely, the Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!"
Has God every done something like that for you? Yes he has, if you are a follower of Christ. When he brought you to faith, he released you from bondage. He freed you from the dominion and power of sin. You were a slave, held captive, powerless to escape. But God broke the chains that bound your heart. He gave you a freedom you had never known. Do you remember how you felt when you first placed your trust in Christ, when you first received forgiveness for sins? The joy, the excitement! "Can you believe it? God loves me! Jesus Christ died for me! I’m forgiven! He’s given me eternal life! Hallelujah! Praise God!" He changed you; he changed your life, and your friends and family, and everyone around you, recognized that something significant had happened. And as the Psalmist wrote, "Then it was said among the nations, ’The Lord has done great things for them.’"
Friends, the way to walk in joy for the rest of your life is to continually bring to mind what God has done for you. It may sound easy, but it’s harder than you think. Why? Because it means that you’ll be swimming upstream, fighting the current. The world wants us to forget what God has done for us. We have a strong, fierce spiritual enemy, and he wants us to forget, too. As the old hymn put it, this world is no friend to grace. The things you see on television or in the movies; the things you read in books and magazines and newspapers; the things you hear from political and cultural leaders; the conversations you have with neighbors and co-workers -- by and large, these are not going to support or encourage you in your desire to remember God’s blessings. And so, it has to be a sustained, conscious, intentional effort. That is why Paul warned, in his letter to the Romans,
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." -- Romans 12:2
"Don’t be conformed to this world." What does that tell you? That you’re at risk of being conformed. The world is constantly pushing on you, from every side. It’s like air pressure; it’s everywhere. It wants to mold you into its likeness, instead of the likeness of Christ. The only way to counteract it is to be continually renewing your mind; filling your mind with thoughts of what God has done for you; remembering the works of grace and mercy he has performed in your life.
How do you do that? The same way you get anything else into your mind. You read. Read the Bible. Read books about the Bible. Memorize Scripture. Get the Word into your head any way you can. And keep at it, because the world never stops trying to fill your mind up with its ideas and values. The world would like you to meditate on what you want and don’t have. The world would like you to dwell on your loss, and pain; to nurse resentments for all the ways you’ve been mistreated and hurt by other people. The world would like you to fill your head with useless, worthless, meaningless, trivial junk. Anything except the Word of God. You have to resist. But you can’t fight something with nothing. In order to resist successfully, you have to have something in your mind to resist with.
There’s another way of training ourselves to reflect on what God has done for us, one you may not have considered. And that’s music. Music isn’t just entertainment. Music carries a message. And music has a way of getting inside our minds, of burrowing deep into our subconscious, and embedding itself into our thoughts and attitudes even when we’re not aware of it. Whenever you turn on a radio station, or listen to a CD, you’re being "evangelized" with someone’s world view. So make sure that you’re hearing enough of the truth to offset the world’s propaganda. Buy Christian CD’s. Listen to Christian radio. Sing in the car on the way to work. Sing in the shower. Don’t let this half hour of worship on Sunday morning be the only time you listen to Christian music, the only time you sing praises to God; when the world is blasting you with its message sixteen hours a day.
But even with all of this good input, you still have to apply what you know. When destructive, discouraging thoughts invade your thinking, you need to counter them with the Word of God. You need to develop the habit of replacing false thoughts with true ones, even to the point of mentally repeating the truth to yourself until it takes hold. Psychiatrists call this "cognitive therapy," but Paul knew about it two thousand years ago. Here’s a practical suggestion: What’s the most common source of discouragement for you? Memorize a few key verses addressing that area. Then, as soon as negative thoughts start to creep in, bring those verses to mind. That way, the threats to your joy and peace can be nipped in the bud. This was the strategy that Jesus followed when he was tempted by Satan. He met every attack with Scripture. He replaced the devil’s lies with statements of truth.
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:" ’He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: ’Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’"
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him." -- Matthew 4:1-11
In yesterday’s paper, there was an article about Neil Roberts, one of the seven American soldiers killed in battle last week in Afghanistan. He had written a letter to his wife, to be opened in the event of his death. Here’s what he wrote: "I died doing what made me happy. Although I sacrificed personal freedom and many other things, I got just as much as I gave. My time in the Teams was special. For all the times I was cold, wet, tired, sore, scared, hungry and angry, I had a blast. I loved being a SEAL. If I died doing something for the Teams, then I died doing what made me happy. Very few people have the luxury of that."
Is it difficult being a Navy SEAL? Most definitely. Look at how he described his experience: "cold, wet, tired, sore, scared, hungry, angry, giving up personal freedom". Not to mention the possibility of giving up his life for others. But in spite of all that, he was full of joy. He was happy. Why? Because he realized that he had been given as much, or more, than he had given up. Could you say the same thing? If your life were to end today, could you look back on your time of walking with Christ and say, "It was all worth it."? You see, if we focus on the difficulties, the sacrifices, the pain, the sorrow -- then we’ll be in a constant state of depression and discouragement. If we focus solely on the cost of discipleship, on what we’ve been called to suffer, then we’ll never be content. But the more we focus on what we’ve received, what God in Christ has done for us, the more thankful and joyful we’ll be. Because what we have received is far, far greater than anything we have lost. As Paul testified,
"Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." -- Philippians 3:7-8
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Joy comes, not from looking at what we have lost or suffered, but on what we have been given. Joy comes from filling our minds with the saving works of God in history, and his saving acts of mercy and grace in our lives. In other words, joy comes from counting our blessings.
Joy also comes from looking forward to what we have yet to receive, dwelling on God’s promises for the future instead of our fears and worries. Again, in Psalm 126, we read this:
Restore our fortunes, O Lord ,
like streams in the Negev.
Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.
Some of you have experienced what it means to "sow in tears". It means obeying God, continuing to live for Christ, continuing to follow him, as best you know how -- even when everything in you wants to quit. "Why are you wasting your time?" that inner voice says. "God has abandoned you. He doesn’t care about you; if He did, you wouldn’t be suffering like this. Why serve a God who treats his people this way?" You hear the voice of doubt; you want more than anything to quit, to give up. And yet, somehow you cling to your faith, small and weak as it is. You keep going. Even though you’re suffering, and grieving, and confused, you keep moving forward, keep serving the Lord. Even though it all seems hopeless, you keep doing what He’s called you to do. And in doing that, you find joy. Why? Because God always allows us to see the fruit of our labors? No. But we rejoice in his promise that no act of faith, no step of obedience, no work of love, no act of service, will ever go unrewarded. The harvest and the reward are certain, because they are based on the power and promises of God, which cannot fail. Again, as Paul writes, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. . . Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:7, 9)
Brothers and sisters, don’t give up. Don’t become weary. Look to God. Consider how he has blessed you; consider how he has promised to bless you in the future. Rejoice in his gifts and his love. And remember that no one has ever been a loser by giving himself wholeheartedly to the Lord. Amen.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
