Rejoice

 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4) 

Rejoice? Rejoicing is great when you have something to rejoice about. When something cool, interesting, nice, or otherwise positive happens, I’m happy to say “Yay God!” Admittedly, I don’t tend to shout it. That would draw attention to me. given the impromptu task of expressing delight to an audience. I spent a minute and a half smiling. Needless to say, I didn’t win the votes of my audience. Delight, or rejoicing, it would seem, tends to require words, volume, and large gestures. Those are certainly possibilities, but they aren’t the only ways to rejoice.

But that’s not the idea in today’s verse. We’re to rejoice in the Lord. What does that mean? It might be an easy thing if God spent our days giving us little miracle after little miracle, like a doting grandpa entertaining a toddler grandchild: making faces and noises, bouncing us around so that we don’t have a chance to pay attention to anything beyond the ever-changing stimuli. But that’s not how God works. If He did, we’d be even more immature and narcissistic than we tend to be.

So how do we rejoice in the Lord? Especially always?

One thing I found that helps is providing our own stimulus. I do better at rejoicing, being positive, and generally functioning when there’s music in the background. Going back to the idea of the two wolves – silence tends to feed the wrong one. Solitude and silence are great disciplines, but only when one can take the time to deal with what one takes with one into them. In this, I’m thankful for a wide range of friends God has given to me that I’ve never met: Keith Green, Sandy Patty, Steve Green, Beethoven, and so many others in addition to the many I have met.

Another aid to rejoicing is writing in a journal. It allows one to look at things more objectively, and can help one gain the clarity needed to rejoice.

Reading Scripture and the stories of other Christians can lead to rejoicing. This is another reason why we need the fellowship of other committed Christians. I know I don’t thank God often enough for the wonderful friends He has given me but whom I have never met: Paul, Peter, John, C. S. Lewis, Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, John Piper, R. C. Sproul, and again, many others in addition to those I’ve met.

Habit is also a useful aid. One suggestion for this one is to stack your habits. Decide to take a moment to rejoice when you’re walking from your bedroom to the bathroom or kitchen first thing in the morning, or as part of each meal, or every time you get behind the wheel. To show you how powerful habit can be, many years ago, I took singing lessons, and my teacher gave me a tape of vocaleses so I could practice. As I was on my way to work one wintery day, I hit an ice patch and slid against the curb. No damage was done to the car, but when the car stopped, I realized that I had continued to sing with the tape. Because I was in the habit of doing my vocaleses this way, my body did them in spite of my attention being on getting the car to stop.

That’s the way our rejoicing and worship should be.