How to Choose Joy

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In April I drove to the beach with my husband sitting beside me in the passenger seat and my two kids behind me in their car seats. Josh and I took turns driving, but I preferred my spot behind the wheel. Driving made me feel as though I was making progress and not just waiting for the destination to rise up from the horizon.

The kids, ages five and three, had never seen the ocean before. I was glad to know we would arrive with plenty of daylight left to illuminate the reactions on their faces. 

Three days before piling into this car, I’d come down with a severe cold. The symptoms still lingered, so I tucked supplies within arm’s reach as we hurtled down the highway—water bottles, boxes of tissues, and throat lozenges. 

As I drove, my head ached, and the weariness of sickness settled over my body like a drug beckoning me to rest. Despite my physical discomfort, a rising sense of anticipation and delight propelled me forward. My mental condition couldn’t have been more different from my physical state. I knew if I kept going for only a few more hours, we would arrive. 

When the Reward Seems Far Off

The trip made me think about our lives and our ultimate destination. I thought of the suffering we endure along the way, the regular rest we require to journey well, and the longing for our awaiting reward that moves us forward with expectation and joy.

Maybe in your past, you’ve felt a thrill of delight at the thought of our promised home with Jesus—the moment you became a Christian, a weekend church retreat, or simply singing a hymn to God. 

But like a child who starts out walking with enthusiasm, time has a way of rubbing off the excitement. 

Each step brings with it more questions. How much longer Lord? Are we actually making progress at all?

An Unknown Day and Hour

Driving to the beach, the GPS told me exactly how many miles and minutes separated me from my reward. In our spiritual journeys, the not-knowing can strip away the joy that drives us forward to meet Jesus. We have no map indicating heavy traffic and detours. We don’t know how much further we have to travel.

What if I set out on the same road trip but instead of step-by-step directions, I only had a vague sense of direction, and the destination remained far-off in some yet-to-be-identified spot? Would I have turned around after a few hours? I probably wouldn’t have made it past my driveway.

In our spiritual journey, we don’t know the day or the hour that we’ll come into the presence of God, but we do know the direction—through following Jesus. As we trust him with the timing, we can set our feet to the path and walk in hopeful, joyous expectation of our eternal reward.

Eternal Life is Here

Joy comes from a future-oriented hope of what will be, but it also springs up from the knowledge of what we’ve already attained. Isaiah delighted “greatly in the LORD” because of what God had accomplished—past tense—in his life.

“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Isaiah 61:10

When you go on vacation, you’ve likely already picked out your hotel room, paid a deposit, and planned out your activities. So when you travel, you’re headed towards a certain delight—it is paid, it is finished. You just have to get there.

Eternal life is already ours. For those who put their faith and trust in Jesus, we find joy in the finished work of the cross and resurrection. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24).

And What About Our Struggles?

Eternal thinking reminds us that present suffering will not last. And this is where my analogy breaks down a bit. I don’t want to trivialize the real, deep hurts and struggles of life by comparing them to a mere cold. But I do think we can talk about delight and joyous hope even in the worst of suffering. 

In fact, many of the Bible’s discussions of joy are interwoven with suffering and trials. Paul tells us to “rejoice in our sufferings” (Romans 5:3). James asks us to “count it all joy…when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). And Peter encourages us with this word: “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13).  

Tim Keller, in his book Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, says this: “While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.”

The Cycle of Choosing and Experiencing

So, how then do we choose joy for today, tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after that? We let the Scriptures infuse our waking hours with the reminder that our day with the Lord is coming. It is a certainty, and each moment brings us closer to the destination. We give thanks not only for our future hope but for God’s graciousness in the present and past. And we don’t dismiss or repress our current struggle but let joy bubble up beside it with full confidence in the promises of God.

Last fall, I addressed the question of whether gratitude was a feeling or a choice. As I write about joy, I see the similarities. When we choose to focus our minds on truths that are worth rejoicing over, we heap kindling on the flame of joy so that it burns brighter within our hearts.

The choosing and the feeling become interconnected in a cycle of joy. 

Can you find some kindling today? Spend a few minutes with God in his Word listening to his voice. Speak to him about what you may be experiencing today that doesn’t feel like joy. And if you’d like to know more about what it means to put your faith in Jesus—the reason for our joy— I’d love to talk with you about that. You can contact me here.

Talk to me in the comments! What has been your experience with choosing joy? I’d love to hear your story.

*Featured photo by Caju Gomes on Unsplash