Fullness of Joy

Today as I was insulating pipes at the UCSD northern housing development, a smile spread across my face.  When we work as unto the LORD, there is no drudgery in it.  I realized working in the trade for me is a labor of love.  It is not that I love fiberglass clogging my pores, hitting my hardhat on pipes, or cutting the dickens out of my knuckle with a sharp hanger strap:  I love the job my God has given me to perform.  I want to please Him and be about the business He has granted to me as steward.

I thought to myself, I don't have to do this.  There's a lot of easier things I could be doing, things that are more comfortable and less strenuous.  Have you ever had to wear a hardhat, a respirator (dust mask), and safety glasses at the same time, climbing up and down a ten foot ladder hundreds of times a day carrying knives and cutting fiberglass?  It's a strange life, but one I wouldn't change because it's what God has given me to do.  It feels good to work hard, and serving God is hard work.  Paul made tents not as a hobby, but to support his ministry towards the Gentiles.

Jesus did not have to do the good things He did.  He did not have to heal people, perform miracles, teach the multitudes, hold little children, or go where the diseased and lepers were.  He was never forced to do anything.  But He lived to please His Father in heaven, and His Father was well-pleased with Him!  Jesus told His disciples, "These things I say to you that your joy may be full."  Jesus had this fullness of joy and was therefore able to give it to others.  Our joy is full when we walk in obedience to the Father, fully pleasing Him.  Paul wrote in Colossians 1:9-12:  "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; [10] that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; [11] strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; [12] giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light."

The joy Jesus brings does not depend on circumstances.  Joy is not obtained through a girlfriend, a new car, a dream job, or your team winning the Super Bowl.  Jesus is the source of true joy, and it is received when we walk in the Spirit and abide in Him.  Like Paul, we can be in prison and sing heartfelt songs of praise.  We can be thankful and filled with joy when we are coated with a thick layer of itchy fiberglass.  We can rejoice without knowing all the answers, resting in the fact God is our Father and we are His precious children.  He gives us eternal life, and no one can snatch us from His hand.  Praise Him!