What if It’s Wonderful?Sample

Choosing Joy

Choosing joy by noticing beauty makes a difference. Beauty found in our stories—redemption of what we had written off as ruined, brave truth-telling and transformation woven through stories we wish were different. Beauty found in our relationships, vulnerable honesty (saying, “I’m sorry. Can we try again?”), and radical acceptance and embrace. Beauty matters because of where it leads us.

When the “sinful” woman washed Jesus’ feet with perfume, rinsed them with her tears, and dried them with her hair as a lavish act of love, it lead her into Jesus’ presence where she was received and He affirmed her offering as worthy. Love is the fruit of a person who has received forgiveness with gratitude. This woman received joy through this gift of forgiveness. The sinful woman’s lavish love was not dangerous but sacrificial and rightly ordered—a celebration of her King. This kind of love is a natural response to God’s extravagant grace.

I would like to believe that I would be like this woman in this story. In actuality I find it uncomfortable to recognize my need for rescue and grace. We are often comforted by our own decency and, therefore, fearful of our own depravity, causing us to minimize our astonishment of grace. Diminishing the bad news of our sin only prevents us from celebrating the good news of our salvation. We are undeserving. But because of God’s incalculable love for us, we get to receive and celebrate His grace anyway. This means we can be both undeserving and immeasurably loved at the same time, relieving us of the burden of proof and inviting us to cease our striving.

Choosing to delight in God is how I want to celebrate His love and faithfulness for me—acknowledging my extensive sin, God’s forgiveness, and gratitude for the extravagant love I’ve been given. No matter where we stand in our circumstance, we are not disqualified from delighting in a God who gave us Himself.

Choosing to celebrate with joy doesn’t eliminate the sting of whatever your pain looks like in this moment, but it will change the pain when you can say, “Look what God did!” Knowing God is with us significantly changes our pain. And the comfort that comes from sharing our pain and celebrating His goodness with His people gives us a security and comfort that brings life to dry bones.

We all have life experiences and relationships that have shaped the wounds we carry. I know that, like me, you have very good reasons for feeling the way that you do—feelings that make joy feel foreign. But once again, I take comfort in the fact that there is a difference between feelings being real and feelings being true. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, we can experience emotional pain and know that pain is not the end of the story. Jesus gives us a way to choose joy as we celebrate who we are in Christ.

We don’t celebrate lavishly because it’s what we deserve. We celebrate with extravagance because of what we don’t deserve and have received by grace anyway. Celebration at its very best is a response to God’s goodness, not a reward for our own. It is based on the truth that God delights in you, and He has given you a choice in whether or not you will take Him at His word. Believe the truth. Choose joy and celebrate what God has done in your life!

Respond

In what ways does experiencing joy begin with a choice, rather than a feeling?

How are giving and receiving forgiveness part of choosing joy? Where does this giving and receiving lead in your relationship with Jesus?

In what ways do you need to receive and celebrate God’s grace and goodness today?