Companions

Do you have a favorite companion?  Someone or something who’s company you enjoy and find that you are most compatible with?  I’ve had a few close companions over the years with the longest lasting one being that of JOY!  I was raised in a home with a very joyful Mom, and a more reserved Dad who told lots of corny jokes and would occasionally surprise us all with a touch of some “let-it-go” surprisingly funny actions…

Like the time we were staying at a motel in Southern California and laughing at some outlandish story my mom was telling us kids, when my Dad, dressed in his green and white striped pajamas, suddenly rolled off the bed and began to pose like a wild animal on his hands and knees!  I’m not sure what we enjoyed more… the humor of it or just THAT HE ACTUALLY DID IT! Then there was the time that my folks and another couple dressed up as the Beatles… complete with long hair wigs and wooden instruments, for a Knights of Columbus Halloween party at our Catholic Church!  Needless to say, they won first place and we got lots of pictures of the event!

So, with parents like that, I couldn’t help but turn out with an easy-going, joyful & humorous disposition!  When Piper and I started dating at the beginning of our Senior year in high school, it was literally a match made in heaven!  I already had an idea of what I was getting myself into with her as we had spent the previous year seated next each other and cracking each other up in our eleventh grade English class.  We had also spent many hours together on weekends and on lazy summer afternoons as part of a group of friends that hung out together and participated in countless softball and volleyball games, trips to the beach, excursions to the local hamburger joints… and lots of laughter!

We quickly became inseparable companions and grew together in our experience of and maturity in our Christian walk.  With similar fun-loving personalities, it was easily apparent that the profusion of JOY was to be a major part and process of our ministry style.  After our marriage, the JOY of the Lord just seemed to be a constant companion of ours wherever we went and in whatever we did.  Whether it was with youth classes, in Children’s Church or preaching to the adult congregation, we always tended to receive positive remarks concerning the way in which we incorporated lots of JOY and laughter into our lessons or sermons.

I still find myself breaking into laughter today, whenever I listen to some of the cassette recordings of the occasional sermons that Piper taught to the adults on Wednesday nights.  And I always had to stay on the alert that I didn’t go down too many rabbit trails when preaching to the youth or adults with my funny stories and anecdotes!  It helped for me to occasionally glance over Piper’s way to see if she was giving me the “look” or hand signal that I was going too far off subject!  We definitely made a good team!

I was led to look up another one of Piper’s favorite scriptures yesterday that’s found in I Peter 1:8 where the Apostle wrote, “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” (NASB)  From the way she underlined, circled and highlighted part and portions of this verse in her old NASB Bible, and made numerous personal notations in the margins, I can say without a doubt that she (like me) firmly believed that JOY was a lifestyle that clearly marked and defined the Christian believer… and separated him or her from everyone else.

Peter described JOY as something that was very much alive and thriving in the early church.  He said that our faith in the Lord was of such power that at times it would bubble up, in, over and through us to the point of being “inexpressible and full of glory!”  Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says that this is “a very strong expression, so much so as you don’t have words that clearly express it because it is so filling and always new.”  John Gill in his Exposition of the Entire Bible written between 1746 – 1763, enumerated on those thoughts declaring, “This is a JOY which is better experienced (and demonstrated) than expressed!”

So, like many other basic Bible truths, this kind of JOY is an action… and without the actions of it in demonstration… its meaningless.  Just like the way James described how “faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26 KJV)

In all honesty, this kind and/or level of JOY was one of the key forces that helped Piper and I to make it through some of the roughest times physically, spiritually and emotionally over the last eight years of her earthly existence… and as far as I am concerned… in the midst of her most noticeable absence in my life today… it still holds a very important place marker in the immediate success of my days as I work to to process everything and continue on with what the Lord still has planned for me to accomplish.

And let me tell you… it ain’t always easy!  There are times where I feel like I need to physically make the effort to go to the front door and invite His JOY back into my house to be my constant companion again… whether I feel like it or not!  In the Jim and Piper household, depression never had a voice… and I’m NOT about to allow it to spew its ugly lies now!

The companionship of JOY is a choice and a lifestyle.  What choice are you making today… and what lifestyle are you choosing to live today?