Joy..article from the archives

“I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my [spiritual] children are living [their lives] in the truth.” 3 John 1:4 AMP

I enjoy a lot of things about meeting with people, but the thing I enjoy the most, is seeing people experience freedom. I’m not talking about behavior. We humans have a tendency to go there, thinking, ”What I’m doing, or what he/she/they are doing, I don’t like, and how do I stop it, or get them to stop it!” Goodness, if we could all do that, we wouldn’t need each other. Or a Savior for that matter!

I don’t know if I have vocabulary for the kind of freedom I’m talking about, but I’ll try! It’s almost intangible but at the same time, palpable, like…seeing dark go to light, or something blurry come into focus, or feeling something oppressive, lift. It’s the “aha” moment when someone realizes, maybe for the first time ever, that the way God sees them and how He feels about them is not the way they see themselves, not the way they think others see them, and not the way the messages, they’ve internalized through the years, have convinced them they are.

These are moments when I feel deeply, the holiness and sacredness of the moment, almost like I feel God’s joy over one of His kids knowing the truth. It feels heavy…weighty…intense…humbling…like I don’t know whether I want to, in my imagination, throw my arms around Him and hug Him and never want to let go, or lie on the floor in complete worship of Him. These are moments when I shut my door, after my counselee leaves, and cry. The gratitude I feel in the moment is overwhelming…I’m thankful that I get to be a part of what God is doing, that I get to see transformation happen right in front of me, that someone who felt hopeless now has hope, that God is real, that He’s with us, that He sees us, that He cares, that the deep pain someone was in, just one moment before, is now transformed into peace and I got to watch it happen, that my own heart is ministered to in the same moment theirs is. These are moments when I say to myself….This is why I do what I do. Moments when I stand in complete awe of who God is and what He does.

What I get to experience seems indescribable. Sometimes I say to God, “You are crazy! You’re just crazy!” Translation….”I am so completely stunned, astounded, amazed, thankful, awed, humbled, and speechless at what You just did that I can’t even get my mind around it and my strong feelings are all jumbled up in a big mass of….HALLELUJAH!” And then…I get to see the truth walked out, week after week, with those I see every week. Oh how happy that makes my soul!

Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). I do what I do for the joy set before us…those I work with and me. It truly is inexpressible!