'Surprised by Joy' is the title of one of C.S.Lewis' books in which he describes how his faith was exercised by the death of his wife, Joy.
Joy is not something that people naturally expect to be associated with suffering. For Christians, however, it is different; because, when suffering affects believers, there is, in the midst of it all an exercise of faith. And there is joy in that exertion. It is a bitter-sweet joy, but it is a joy nevertheless. Perhaps it is a joy that only believers can know. It is the profession of the faithful that, if we feel joy in the midst of pain, it is because '...the extraordinary power
belongs to God and does not come from us’
(2
Corinthians 4.7).
The
apostle St.Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians contains great
wisdom for us as we ‘groan’ over the troubles of life. He knew all about troubles! He writes, ‘We
are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not
destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so
that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body’.
In
these times of ease and convenience we don’t like hardship. When
difficulties present themselves, rather than rise to the occasion as
believers, we act like spoiled children who cannot put things in
perspective and fall to pieces rather that react like people who
trust God.
In
our affluent world we are particularly vulnerable to reacting badly
to hardship. We are challenged by the example of St. Paul, who saw
hardship as part and parcel of life on earth. The outward
circumstances of life in which ‘stuff happens’ combined with his
own physical limitations did not deter him from praising God and
seeing a divine purpose working itself out in his life, nevertheless.
‘We
have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power
belongs to God and does not come from us’,
he wrote. The weaker he felt, the more the apostle saw the strength
of God and His grace being sufficient and, indeed ‘perfect
in weakness’ (2 Cor.
12.9). So what, if God said no to his prayers, that the ‘thorn
in his flesh’ be taken
away? He would live with it, if that was God’s will, and even
‘rejoice’ at the exercise of faith that was involved.
He
offers us comfort when he writes, ‘though
outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day
by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on
what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
Now
we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a
building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human
hands’ (2 Cor.
4.16-5.1).
Deferred
glory and deferred comfort was worth celebrating for St. Paul and
should be for us, too. We fix our eyes on the glory that awaits us
beyond this life, just as Jesus fixed His eyes on the accomplishment
of our redemption. ‘For
the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross’
(Heb. 12.2).
After
all, we are all beneficiaries of the suffering of Jesus that
accomplished the forgiveness of all our sin and opened the kingdom of
Heaven to all believers.
As
Christ is risen and has re-assumed His glory, so He promises that He
goes to prepare a place for us who trust in Him, in a glorious world
to come.
‘Meanwhile
we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling’,
and God expects us to be ok with that. The glory is coming.
