How Can Joy Last?
This picture always makes me sad, and happy.
It hurts seeing anyone who suffers from lack, and wonderful to see a face of pure joy.
All the work put into this website is because we want people to get their new shoes. This life is wearing out for all of us, from the moment we put it on. And if the claim of Jesus is true, then you not only get a new one to put on, but can also try it on now.
This is an unmatched claim that comes with an unmatched gift and results in unmatched joy.
An Unmatched Claim
Unlike every other belief system throughout history, Jesus claimed God doesn’t grade on a curve (how “good” we are), but on a standard (holiness), which none of us have met. He stated we have all done things “unholy” (against God’s nature), and such things will be separated from a holy God. Like oil and water, sin and holiness just don’t mix. If true, that’s the bad news.
But, there is the “Gospel,” which translates as the “good news.” A holy God did not leave us separated, but instead came to personally show us his nature, and how much we are valued by spreading his arms wide on the cross and taking on the penalty for our wrongdoings. Only at the cross do perfect justice and love cross. The justice against unholiness is paid and our debt was cleared.
Then, Jesus rose from the grave to verify his authority over death, and his claim he can do the same for us. This sounds like great news, and some immediately wonder if only wishful thinking. It would be wishful thinking to believe any belief system without standout reasons, but unlike such baseless hope, this claim comes with unparalleled evidence. The Bible and Jesus both provided specific and unequalled predictions—most significantly Jesus’ own sacrifice and rise from death—able to be checked to either validate or expose as false. And the evidence supporting these claims is available and unmatched.
Therefore, accepting this good news is the most reasonable belief, and living on the hope any contrary belief system will lead where you expect, is wishful thinking.
An Unmatched Gift
If there is a God, who loves us enough to sacrifice as Jesus did, and with the sovereignty demonstrated with an unmatched claim and verification, then it would be unreasonable to doubt the culmination of his claims, which was we can put off our wearing-out-life, and put on the eternal life God planned for us, even now.
When one really realizes what this means, they can experience pure, lasting joy, because this joy is not like any of the others! This joy is not dependent on you, your control, or what life brings, but on an authority above it all and in a position to know.
An Unmatched Joy
Now the practical application: How does one get this lasting joy?
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary definition of “joy”:
The emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.
Hopefully, you know what this feels like by experience, however, you may also know through experience how fleeting joy can be, impossible to control or make lasting. Even joy we worked long and hard to reach can be wiped away in an instant by unexpected events, carrying us away from joy into despair.
However, if there is an authority in the position to ensure well-being, when all is said and done, and ensure our hope of fulfilling our needs in the highest level, then joy can become permanent, secure. This is how one gets the only lasting joy available in life:
Once accepting the forgiveness God offers, your big picture just got infinitely bigger, as now you have added a never-ending existence with a God who loves you, and all the corresponding results that follow.
Personal Experience: Joy Amid Challenges
Standing on this foundation will give lasting joy, except for those times when you turn your eyes and brain from God and onto things that would naturally stress you.
This is another reason knowing why you believe what you believe is so serious. The hope, which allows lasting joy regardless of current circumstances, is only as strong as the reasons to believe it are beyond the contrary beliefs. And these reasons to believe have already been demonstrated in all applicable fields of study, and on a level no other belief system has been capable of remotely reaching.
Practical Application to Life
The follower of Jesus, Paul, who claimed to have interacted with a risen Jesus, and knew for certain whether the claims were true or not, went through more pain and mistreatment than most of us could even imagine, in order to spread Jesus’ message. The historical scholarship grant these facts. Read his letters in the New Testament, historians have studied them, and Paul is recognized as extremely intelligent, genuine, and lived a life impossible to understand – unless the reader has experienced the permanent joy Paul did.
Even in prison, awaiting potential execution, Paul wrote, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
As historian Dr. Gary Habermas notes, this is not Paul trying to be poetic, this is Paul trash talking. He is saying God has provided him with a hope that is certain, a joy, which cannot be lost regardless of anything life can throw at him. Paul met the risen Jesus, was blinded and healed, performed miracles himself, and saw enough to know for certain the joy Jesus spoke of can be counted upon, as it does not depend on you, or what life brings, it depends on the one who demonstrated authority over it all.
The Bible is filled with examples like Paul’s to show us what this lasting joy looks like. Across the ages, people from all walks of life have experienced this joy, and it is available to each of us today.
Personal Experience: Finding Joy Amid Life’s Challenges
If Paul seems too distant, my own example people may identify with easier. I’ve had some really high-highs, pure joy, which didn’t last, therefore I fell into the common pattern of just looking forward to the next fun thing: the next basketball game, the next date, next trip, next movie, next coffee.
While I had believed in Jesus’ claim, I treated God more like an “add-on” to life, rather than a viable relationship and foundation of my life. When I finally sought a true relationship with God, everything changed. The lasting joy and transformation I experienced weren’t something I created—they were natural byproducts of the relationship with Him.
While I haven’t faced the hardships Paul did, and I still fall into worry at times, or into the slavery of trying to create and keep joy on my own, but the permanent joy is always there now, and rises to the forefront when needed.
For example, due to some shady behavior of people in a more powerful position than myself, I lost my job, my house, and around the same time lost my Jeep and even my dog. Despite the chaos, there was a peace in me, not surprising to family and close friends, but others around me noticed. During this time, I was staying with a friend, and one day I joked how bad his lawn looked and asked, “How does it feel being the guy whose house is bringing all your neighbors’ property values down?” He responded, “At least I have a house.”
We both burst into laughter, despite everything happening around me. Through his laughing my friend gasped out how it was just so wrong to say his joke, but he was so glad he could because he knew it would not hurt me as I was different in the area of joy.
Even with all the waves of stress and uncertainty, I wasn’t overwhelmed. Not because of anything to do with me, far from it, as someone who struggles with anxiety I should have been tossed around with waves of chaos, fear, disappointment, and hopelessness. Instead, all those waves were smoothed down into simply challenging body-surfing waves. I still got a nose-full of water here and there, but I wasn’t in fear, or even anxious, because in my developing relationship with God, I had learned to trust in the only one in a position to know the “big picture,” and carry out his promises.
Trusting the One Who Holds It All
This is not to say terrible things can’t happen to one who trusts God, the Bible even notes there will be strife in life, and gives many examples, including Paul. But knowing God loves us fully and has authority over everything, beyond all other sources of control, brings the assurance that, when all is said and done, no matter what hits me, I will never stand before God and say, “You really failed to handle that situation right, I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
This I can trust, easily, because the reasons supporting it are far beyond the reasons against it, making it irrational – against the reasons – to not trust God and lose my foundation of joy.
Of course, sometimes I still allow my emotions, or my lack of control to steal my focus on God and access to this joy, and even strive to add extra temporary joy now, which can be fine. Losing focus on God can momentarily allow our joy to be shaken, but even then, the foundation itself always remains solid.
The reality is: everything we value and have in life is fragile, like being carried in a wet paper bag. Eventually, the bottom will fall out, whether during life or at its end. But if Jesus’ offer of eternal life is true, an after-life where the pains and evil of this life have been removed, and is backed by evidence no other claim can match, then you can have real security and lasting joy.
