Joy! Music of the Soul

Have you ever heard a song that just made you want to dance, to smile, to share it with everyone around you?  You want to learn how to play it on an instrument?  You sing it all day long over and over again? A song that just runs through your mind and heart all day, all week, all month? I happen to love music. It is an amazing way to communicate, to edify.  It is also a great way to speak with more than just words and to speak to more than just the brain but to the heart.  My old roommate had a picture that I think summed it up so well, it said, when words fail music speaks.


Lately I have been thinking about the concept of joy.  The first reason is because my friend Mical had a post about it on her blog.  You should read it, it is great! funandfaithful.blogspot.com  The other reason is that I heard a sermon recently about joy.  I had never really given joy much of a thought before to be honest.   Not only that but is there much joy in this life?  Life is hard, and bad things happen all the time.  Most of the time things out of my control.  I guess I always figured joy is for the other side of eternity.  For Heaven.  I never really thought of joy as being essential to our faith.  Boy, I do now!  First of all, what is joy?  Well a couple dictionary definitions:


Joy


   1. the emotion evoked of well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one
       desires
   2. a state of happiness or felicity
   3. a source or cause of delight


Hmmm, this is joy?  So, it comes from our circumstances, from possessions, from outside means? Therefore, all I have to do is go out and make my circumstances the best they can be and get all the stuff I can buy.  Basically, I should live the American dream.  Really? That's it, are you sure Mr. Webster? I am confused, because you see the people I am around aren't very joyous people.  In fact, think about when we ask people how they are.  Most responses are, "I'm doing okay."  "Another day, another dollar."  "Well, I'm here."  "Can't complain too much."  "It could be worse."  Does it sound to you like these people are full of joy?  It sure doesn't to me.  Okay, so lets try another definition, look at the last definition, a source or cause of delight.  What is delight?  Another definition:


Delight


    1. a high degree of gratification, extreme satisfaction
    2. something that gives great pleasure.          


Okay, that's a little better.  Yet, I still feel that we are missing something. Where does this come from?  I like the definition of delight better because it doesn't qualify it with material things.  Now lets look at some synonyms from the thesaurus:


       Bliss, cheer, comfort, delight, ecstasy, elation, exultation, gladness,
       glee, good humor, gratification, hilarity, humor, merriment, mirth,
       pride, rapture, refreshment, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, solace,
       treasure, treat, wonder
     
After a quick search on Bible Gateway, I found that the word joy is mentioned a lot in the Bible.  Just in Psalms it is mentioned 57 times!  I thought that was a bunch, but I know that the Psalms also deals with emotions so I wanted to check the opposite.  I searched for sorrow, in the Psalms it is mentioned 7 times.  50 times less than joy.  Well I thought lets try some other words, grief is mentioned a whole 8 times and woe is mentioned a whole 3 times.  Okay let me get this straight, joy is mentioned 57 times and sorrow, woe and grief are mentioned a grand total of 18 times?  Oh, and I forgot to mention that delight is mentioned 29 times.  There is something to be learned here.  But what?

Stuck: In an Elevator and Elsewhere

Last week I was fortunate enough to stuck in an elevator for two hours.  Fortunate?!  Yes, I say fortunate.   What happened was that some of my coworkers and I were stocking our new building's exam rooms.  It was after hours and unbeknownst to us the new building was locked up and all of the construction workers were gone for the night.  We were just about done and realized we did not have enough gloves to stock all the rooms.  Patrick walked back over to the old building to grab some while I finished putting the bio hazard boxes in the rooms.  The rest of the crew working with us went ahead and went home since we were finishing up.  When I came downstairs to see about Patrick he was waiting at the doors because they where locked.  I let him in and we started back for the elevator.  Now, by this time we have gone up and down the elevator three or four times just fine.  This time, I hit the button for the second floor and off we go.  We start up and the lights on the display go out and we stop.  So, I hit all the buttons try to open the door and nothing happens.  After about five minutes, I hit the help button which calls the elevator company.  The lady comes on and says, "are you stuck in an elevator?" I say, "I thinks so."  So she proceeds to have me try all the buttons again.  I try them and again nothing.  She tells me that she will send someone out.  Shortly after that I realize no one can get in so I go to text my boss.  No signal.  I wave my phone over my head, near the wall, everything short of crawling on top of the elevator.  Finally, I realize if I can hold it up to the top of the door then I can get a little bit of a signal.  I type out a text and wait for it to send.  It goes out and I sit on the floor assuming Patrick and I will be here for awhile.  We start chatting and I start asking him more about his culture back home in Burma.  Time goes by and periodically my boss is texting me.  At one point she says that there is only one key and the general contractor has it.  She then says that the contractor lives in Columbus......Ohio.  So I tell Patrick that we are going to be here awhile.  Then the elevator rings. (I didn't know that you could call an elevator.)  The elevator technician is on the line and states that he is at the address but that it says a different company's name.  After a little discussion we realize that he is at the west address and we are at the east.  He states that he will head that way.  Later, my boss texts and says that they can't get the door open and that they will try another one, and if they can't get in that one then they will have to break a window.  About fourty-five minutes later, we hear a loud pounding and then a breaking glass sound.  Which as you already guessed was them breaking a window to get to us.

I wanted to share this story because, I have learned a lot from it. What can you learn from being stuck in an elevator you ask?  Good question. I have been asking God to teach me patience recently.  Ha! God is faithful, no?  That will teach you some patience right there.  Also, I have been asking for God's calling on my life.  Being in there with Patrick got me to really take a look at my heart and evaluate where my heart was and I realized how selfish I am.  You see Patrick told me in his village back home they did not have running water or electricity in their homes.  They would have to get their water from a 30 foot deep well.  And I complain about traffic slowing me down for five minutes.  I get mad when my computer is running slow.  I get mad when I have to do a little extra work at my job.  Wow!  I have it so bad!  God used being stuck in an elevator for two hours to teach me patience and to change my selfish perspective. Whew! and He was not done.  I started looking outside myself and started feeling a calling.  God may be showing me that I just need to trust in Him and in His time I will be called.  So next time you think you might get stuck in an elevator, behind a slow driver or any other time, ask God what He is trying to teach you.