Can I Have Joy in My Life? by R. C. Sproul

Author:R. C. Sproul
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: joy, religious aspects, biblical teaching, Christianity
Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing
Published: 2012-11-01T05:00:00+00:00

REJOICING EVEN IN LOSSES

After many years, I have begun to discover that it is possible for me to rejoice even when my team loses. How can that happen? It used to make me miserable to see the other team going through its celebrations after defeating my team. Finally, I began to see that those players were thrilled because they had achieved something they had worked so hard to accomplish. They were experiencing what was, for them, an occasion of great joy. It was not as if there had been a national disaster, in which everyone had suffered a loss. There was someone who was happy, and I began to find that I could take pleasure in their happiness.

After all, the Bible tells us, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). That is one of the key principles of joy. It teaches us that our joy is not to be restricted to our own circumstances or our own achievements, but that we ought to be able to feel joy for other people, for their achievements, for their successes, and for their bounty.

It has been said that every shot in the game of golf makes someone happy. If I hit a good shot, I’m happy but my opponent is unhappy. If my opponent hits a bad shot, it makes him unhappy but it makes me happy. But what does that say about me? It says my joy is too self-centered, so restricted to my own circumstances that unless things go the way I want them to go, the way in which I will directly benefit, I cannot be happy. To follow the New Testament ethic, I need to be able to rejoice with those who are rejoicing—and that includes those times when they are rejoicing because they have beaten me. The point is that we should not be jealous or covetous, but we should be able to enter other people’s joy.

By the same token, we are called to enter other people’s sorrow. This is what we call empathy, which involves feeling what others feel. Jesus Himself exemplified this virtue. How else can we explain the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35)? Jesus, who proclaimed Himself to be “the resurrection and the life” (v. 25), came to the tomb of Lazarus knowing full well that He was going to raise His friend from the grave. But everyone there was mourning, including Lazarus’ two sisters, Mary and Martha. They were Jesus’ friends, so He entered their sorrow and wept with them as they wept.

It certainly takes grace to able to find joy in our hearts when people are experiencing joy over a gain that is, in some way, our loss. This involves more than just baseball games. It involves countless things that touch our daily lives. But God enables us as Christians to look at things not just from our own selfish perspectives but from the perspectives of others.

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