Improbable Joy

Yesterday I preached on Acts 16:16-40, specifically focusing on Paul and Silas' encounter with the Philippian jailer (you can download the sermon, titled Compelling Christianity, here). I made the point that one of the key ways in which the jailer was compelled to ask the men about how to be saved (verse 30) was the improbable joy they had in the midst of the suffering they had experienced (verse 25).

This was incredibly humbling, and gratifying, to preach about to our congregation. It was humbling because sitting in front of me yesterday were people who have experienced pain and hardship far greater than anything I have experienced. As I preached God's Word, I looked out on people who have buried children, spouses and siblings, people who are currently undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer, people who are facing foreclosures on their homes, people who have been laid off from jobs or are facing the prospect of being laid off, people going through the pain of divorce. And that is just some of the pain that I was aware of; who knows what else people were experiencing as I preached my sermon yesterday?

Yet at the same time, it was incredibly gratifying, because as I have watched our congregation walk through these painful times, I have witnessed so many of them do so with a song of joyful hope in their hearts. These folks have showed me that their joy is not grounded in their ever-changing circumstances, but in the unchanging love and grace of Jesus Christ. They have not only sang, but lived out the truth expressed so well in the song we sang yesterday morning:

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Words fail to express the pleasure I have in serving people who strive so diligently to live out a passion for Jesus Christ both in times of comfort and in times of pain.

To those of you at JCF who read this blog: thanks so much for your faithful testimony. You are a great encouragement to me!