“How’s it going?”

    Is this just small talk, a serious question, or a genuine greeting? And how do we answer? Do we give people what they want to hear, “Fine, and you?” “Great!” “Hi.” Or do we tell the truth? “I’m feeling lousy, had the flu, and been coughing my head off.” “Not that great, I’m behind on my bills, the kids are sick, and my spouse is really hacked off at me.”

    So it’s now Spring. How are you doing? (Now remember, answer honestly!)

    “Well, I’ve got bad allergies, I had to file an extension on my taxes, and life has been challenging lately!”

    “Things are great, I can’t wait for the summer vacation and our family really enjoyed our spring break!”

    “I’m excited. Work is good, church is good, and family life couldn’t be better.”

    “I’m exhausted; just flat worn out. I hate work. Relationships at home are a real struggle. Church just isn’t doing it for me lately.”

    What situations do you let steal your joy?

    “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) This scripture is a good benchmark to measure your Christian walk? I haven’t gotten perfect “10’s” yet! Notice joy is second to love. So how do we keep the joy that God wants us to have and share with others? How do we keep our joy when our relationship with the one we love is not going the way we want it to go?

    The first way to keep our joy is to encourage one another through our tests in life. Have you ever had a cheerleader? You know, the person that lets you know they are pulling for you. “You can do it... Keep up the good work... I like the way you do that!” Paul encourages the church of the Thessalonians to encourage, “Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (I Thessalonians 5:11) You love those phrases of encouragement; my bet is your partner would love to hear them from you as well.

    The second way is to put a different spin on your setbacks. I say this not to minimize the great obstacles that sometime block our way, but to reexamine the way we look at problems. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its works so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4) Wow, now that’s a different spin on setbacks.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds...”

    James is saying that whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for growth and joy. That setback can help your endurance to be more fully developed, and then you will be strong in character and ready to face almost anything in the future. Ever question a setback God gave you only to find out later that your maturity and spirituality levels grew deeper? God may be calling you to a higher level of maturity and spirituality for your relationship to move to deeper intimacy.

    The third way to keep our joy is to pray. Hopefully, the most important relationship to you is with God. Any relationship involves an investment in time. Listen to this investment, “Keep on praying, no matter what happens...” (I Thessalonians 5:17-18) What is ironic is the verse right before this one is “Always be joyful.” They literally go together.

    Joy in relationships and life are very hard to find some days. We’re almost programmed by advertisers to be dissatisfied with everything so we will want to buy something new to fix our frustration. Finding God’s joy is the one great antidote.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies in front of us pales in comparison to what lies within us.” In other words no matter how bad our past was, no matter how troublesome our future may be, we have the spirit of God within us and that is a wellspring of joy for us this spring, and for the days ahead. So resist the joy stealers by encouraging those we love, by being our own spin doctor, and by praying with thanksgiving! If we’ll do this, we’ll not only add a little joy to our life, but also have more joy to share with those we love.

© 2001, Byron Ware. Used by permission.

Title: "Joy Stealers"
Author: Byron Ware
Publication Date: May 3, 2001

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