Pandemic JoySample

Day 6: Uncontainable Joy

Have you ever felt so happy that you couldn't contain it? I felt like that the day I held our first son in my arms. I couldn’t hold back the joy as a song (in my mother tongue) came forth out of the deep recesses of my heart with tears of joy on my face. I was not bothered about whoever was watching; I could not contain the joy. The joy in Samaria in Acts 8:8, I believe, was far more than that. It was an Uncontainable Joy rooted in an eternal transaction. Nothing that happens 'tomorrow' will change that experience. These people got saved, and they knew it was a forever deal. It resulted in great joy. Uncontainable joy. Pandemic joy.

This is more than the joy of passing your driving test, getting a job, landing a huge business deal, acquiring a property, getting married, getting pregnant, and having a baby. It is a joy beyond the reach of disappointment. No news headline can make it waver. No expert report can thwart it. It is a joy that has no cure. A contagious joy. A pandemic joy, which no pandemic can contaminate.

Stephen’s murder led to the persecution that led to a dispersion that advanced God’s mission and led to uncontainable joy. If we look at some of these events in isolation—Jesus dying, Stephen dying, believers being persecuted and having to flee for their lives—they seem like bad news, but when we view them in the big picture of God's extraordinary plan, we clearly see that the singular event which the devil intended for the ultimate realization of his agenda on earth has become the very source of eternal joy for believers across the world across the centuries.

The pandemic-joy-activating extraordinary plan of God for all of creation keeps unfolding. “Through followers of Jesus . . . gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!” (Ephesians 3:10 MSG) This is why we can be pandemically joyful and certain that the Body of Christ will always emerge on the other side of any earthly challenge stronger than ever.

Yes, some Christians may sleep in the Lord and many local assemblies of Christian worshipers may have to close, but the Church of Christ across the globe remains impregnable and unconquerable. As a member of this Body, therefore, where does this leave you? It leaves you with the reminder that there is a joy—an indestructible, pandemic joy—which is available in us, for us, and through us in times of uncertainty. Earthly pandemics will come and go, and so will many other harsh realities of life on this fallen planet, albeit only in the meantime. Our pandemic joy, however, will remain, and we must grab it with both hands.