Ultra Concentrated Joy

Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle is currently teaching a series entitled a "Rebel's Guide to Joy" in which he is tracking along with Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. Even before Mark's messages I have often heard Philippians referred to as the "Book of Joy," and perhaps because of that I initially was taking his messages to not be quite as satisfying as say Driscoll's Ruth series - which has been by far one of my most enjoyable teaching series.

So far Driscoll has expounded on having joy in loneliness (Phil. 1: 1b-11), joy in suffering (Phil. 1:12-18), and joy in death (Phil. 1:19-30) - [I've yet to listen to "Joy in Death."]. Truthfully I couldn't give you very many specifics from his message, as I don't remember any. What I can speak to though is the general idea of having joy. Not just having it, but choosing it. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I've often spoken about the need to choose joy. I believe I have even blogged about it in the past, and I know I have definately written about it in my diary and in letters to others.

Near and dear to my heart because in the past I had a tendency to want to rely on my feelings, my emotions. I wanted to feel the warm fuzzies that I expected should come with knowing God and striving to be a Christ follower. I am not so emotionally based these days, because for the lessons God has attempted to teach me through the years perhaps the one that has stuck the most is choosing joy. Now it doesn't mean I always do it, but in the instances that I don't choose joy nor do I then revert to thinking God isn't present, etc.

Choosing joy isn't a case about being happy. Joy is not happiness. Happiness comes and goes. It varies on the day, the instant, that moment, but joy - joy is something that is permanent, that is within all our grasp. Joy is not transient.

Joy has been on my mind the past few days, and last week I was cleaning the kitchen at work and the dish soap is "Ultra Concentrated Joy" and it the phrase stuck in my mind. Now currently my mind is unfortunately not firing on all cylinaders, so the connection I am trying to make is quite connecting in my own mind. The reason for the failed connection is not only because of the lack of firing cylindars, but also because I can't make sense of what "concentrated" means in terms of the dish soap. My understanding of "concentrated" is that there is lots of it, that to use you need to dilute it, add water to it - because there is an excess, a large amount. This being the working definition, my point was that we as Christians need to be like that dish soap - to be ultra concentrated joy - to have ultra concentrated joy. Ultra: going beyond what is usual, excess, extreme. So we need to have a going beyond the the usual, fully absorbed, overflowing sense of joy.

You get the picture - I think this post needs a little working on itself, but there you have it!!!