Our Obligation of Joy
So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 11:8
The natural person tends to think that happiness and joy depend on outside events — that is, things beyond them that happen outside of them. The spiritual person understands that joy depends on the Spirit within, and becomes active through the operation of faith.The natural person is tethered only to the physical reality of this life, and it is all vanity, passing away.
We live in a day and age where we view man as the master of all things, in control of life. According to this view of life, we can change our circumstances if we try, and we can learn the sciences, advance in knowledge and in life, and climb the economic and social scale if we will only put forth the effort to do so. Our fulfillment in life, according to the view of the age, is in the achievement of our goals, but this view of life is only partially true. It is not that we cannot change anything, for we can and should try to change much, but we cannot change the basic nature of existence of life on this earth.
The spiritual man still has something to do. It is not more spiritual to be a fatalist than to be a humanist — both views of life have missed the mark in some way. The humanist puts all his focus on human effort alone. The fatalist, on the other hand, removes the human obligation to do even try, seeing all of life as simple luck. The spiritual man sees the hand of God at work all around him, but also sees His hand at work in our hearts, and cooperates with the Spirit.
We are commanded in these verses to rejoice in our youth, to explore and learn what we can, to embrace life that God has given to us with joyful anticipation, to live confidently, but to also live responsibly. This does require a certain amount of risk, a willingness to confidently accept the possibility of danger and even tragedy. Yet the greatest tragedy is to never try at all, to never venture outside the house, to never try to run for fear of spraining one’s ankle. We have an obligation not just to be careful but to also be brave and daring.
And in our hearts we have the obligation of joy, to truly live within us in agreement with the Spirit of God, who is the Giver of Joy. Everything that robs us of joy comes from the world — fear, dread, self-centeredness, jealousy, envy, wrath, unforgiveness, vexation of spirit. To live in joy is to reject the lies of the world, to put aside the world’s ways of thinking, and to embrace the truth of God’s grace and love. We read in scripture, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12).
Dark days will certainly come, days in which the pain of this physical and natural life seem unbearable — unbearable, that is if all we had was only the physical life. But we have Christ, and He has us, and He has us for all eternity, so we do not need to fear or worry.
Exercise joy in your life today. Take the simple things that God has given you — food, clothing, friends, job, education, opportunity, transportation, your health — and thank God for these things. Beyond these, however, thank Him also for His grace and love. Step out in confident faith in life. Look up because God holds your heart!
