If you think anything like me, you just sung the title of this post. If you didn't before, now you are, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, please click here. I'll wait.
Now we can move on.
A dear friend once told me about a segment on a radio show called, "Tell Me Something Good," where, you guessed it, they share stories about good things that have happened. And then, of course, he shared a story with me about how the Lord provided in a unique way for someone. It seems like a simple enough concept,sharing good news, but it is one that I'm still trying to understand and put into practice.
In the past few years God has taught me a lot about joy. One thing that I've learned (and continue to learn) is that joy is something we have to fight for, and something that we have to choose. I was once told that positive and negative things, the good and the bad, are like railroad tracks. Both are always happening. Until we get to Heaven, we won't experience one entirely without the other. We have to choose and fight for joy. However, that doesn't mean keeping that joy to ourselves. We are called to rejoice all throughout scripture, and while there is a deep personally experienced joy, it is never just for us.
"These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in processions to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival."
-Psalm 42:4
"This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." -Psalm 118:24
"Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good work makes him glad." -Proverbs 12:25
It's no secret that the world we live in is fallen. There are a lot of really crappy things that have happened, are happening, and will happen. Sin is a real disease that has long infected our entire existence. This isn't just something that we know in the Church. We know that our world is in a deep state of desperation that only seems to worsen as time goes on. The Black Eyed Peas even re-released their song "Where is the Love" with a timely music video:
We look around and our hearts are burdened by our own sorrows, the hardships of those we know and love, and the tragedies that break people around the world. We need to be sober-minded about these things. We need to pray as desperately as the brokenness within us and around us. But we cannot allow ourselves to forget the glorious reality of joy and goodness in the process.
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." -Psalm 51:17
"Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." -Romans 12:15
So, what does sharing joy actually look like? What if people take it the wrong way? Anything I would say in response to these questions is far more eloquently put in the following article:
Tell me something good. Tell me something that will stir my affection for the LORD and to praise Him in a fresh way. Tell me, and encourage me to tell you, something good.
