Reason To Rejoice: Looking for God's goodness in dark days.

Every season of life invites us to enjoy something. The problem is, there are some powerful and persistent thieves robbing our ability to see God's goodness.

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I've spent a majority of my life moving from one place to another.

First, it was from Oregon to Northern California. Next came South Dakota, and then Virginia. I also lived in both Indiana and North Carolina for a short time. Now, we've been in Utah for almost seven years.

When you move around a lot, it’s hard to feel like you really have roots in any one place. Yet, despite all these moves, something about Chicago will probably always be the closest I feel to “home.” For one thing, I lived there longer than anywhere else. But more significantly, Chicago is where I had some of the most significant and formative experiences of my adult life. I met my wife in Chicago. We had our three kids there. Chicago is where we planted our first church and owned our first home. So much happened in those 16 years.

Yet, oddly enough, I spent many of those years longing to move away. I was so restless. I’m sure some of it was informed by how much movement there was in my early years. But I think more of it had to do with simply being young and not knowing how to nurture a sense of mindful presence where I was.

I spent the majority of last week sitting with Ecclesiastes 11:7-10. One thing that encouraged me was learning that this restless inclination impacts most of us when we’re young. The truth is, we often don’t enjoy where we are because we’re so busy pining after somewhere we’re not. So, we struggle to enjoy the goodness present within our current season and stage of life because we’re so fixated on finding a different job, being in a different relationship, longing for a different home, city, or state. Maybe this is why the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, famously said,

“Youth is wasted on the young.”

Often in our youth, we tend to miss the opportunity to fully appreciate and enjoy the unique aspects of that particular season of life.

While it may be more prevalent in our youth, it certainly isn’t isolated to it. The truth is, many of us tend to miss the goodness of God present within our current season, regardless of our life stage. This is tragic because every season invites us to enjoy something. This is why the Teacher of Ecclesiastes says, “…if someone lives many years, let him rejoice in them all…” (Ecclesiastes 11:8)

I want you to make a note of something here. The Hebrew word we translate as “rejoice” means “to feel happiness or joy.” So, the Teacher is telling us to feel a certain way. I find that interesting because it often feels like we don’t truly choose our emotions. We’re prone to think that our feelings just sort of happen to us. Think about it.

Something scares us, and we feel fear.

Something tragic happens, and we feel sad.

Something good happens, and we feel happy.

Our feelings are a response. But the truth is, you and I have some measure of control over what our brains focus on and experience. To be clear, I said “some measure of control.” The sobering reality is, we don’t control everything we experience. Sometimes terrible things happen to us. So, I’m not talking about trying to avoid the reality of these experiences through some sort of dysfunctional mental jiu-jitsu. Additionally, some of us have mental illnesses that make it difficult, maybe even at times, impossible to control what we focus on and feel in response. That being said, the Teacher isn’t speaking to any of these realities. He’s speaking of our everyday, general experience.

I’ll give you an example. Last week, I was writing in my study, and I got stuck on a particular point. So, I did what I’ve done since I started writing. I went for a short walk. Because all this was on my mind, I spent my walk trying to be present and enjoy the moment. I noted that it felt good to be up and walking. I noted that the sun was out and warm on my face. I noted that I was working on something important and meaningful. I noted how good I felt about a small progression in my skateboarding that morning. Each of these was so simple, but guess what happened? Within just a few moments, I felt really happy. I think this is the very practice the Teacher of Ecclesiastes is inviting. He’s saying that every season invites us to enjoy something.

The problem is, there are some very common experiences that rob us of the ability to rejoice in and enjoy any given moment. Here are the three most common in my life:

Anxiety.

I’ve not found a way to enjoy a moment in which I’m also feeling anxious. Anxiety is a horrible experience, so it can’t be enjoyed. But God has given us some great tools to tend to our anxious moments. Again, I’m talking everyday anxiety, not an anxiety disorder requiring medical treatment. We have effective tools to tend to that as well, but I’m talking about everyday anxiety. Things like being worried about an upcoming conversation, a project, or something at work. God’s given us simple tools like our breath, prayer (Phil 4:5-7), and talking to one another, all of which help us tend to our anxious moments.

Hurry.

Enjoyment requires being present. Hurry robs us of that ability. When we’re in a rush to get onto what’s next, we can’t enjoy where we are. This is why margin is such an important practice in life. We need downtime. We need space. We need to be able to move lightly through the day. Unfortunately, we all find ourselves in a hurry from time to time. But being in a hurry all the time is not a Jesus-like way to live. Never once in the Gospels do we read of Jesus hurrying anywhere. He had margin to be interrupted. He had margin for His plans and schedule to get hijacked. So when and where we’re able, we need appropriate margin in our lives.

Discontent.

Discontent is what happens when we hyper-fixate on what is missing from our lives, rather than focusing on the good that’s already present. So, rather than being grateful for the body, relationships, job, or the home I already have, I’m constantly focused on how those things aren’t what I wish they were. The challenge with this is, we live in a culture whose entire economy is built on making us feel discontent. The entire goal of modern marketing is to make you feel discontent with what you have, so that you will buy whatever is being sold. As an example, there’s a billboard for a plastic surgery company I drive by all the time that says, “Life’s short. Buy the lips.” Maybe I sound like an out-of-touch old man, but that message is so damaging to the female psyche that it should be illegal! My point is, most marketing is mentally abusive. Unless we recognize that, we’ll fall prey to it, rather than resisting it and nurturing a spirit of contentment within us.

I’ve spent the past few months studying Ecclesiastes, and I can’t help but walk away from the book convinced that God does, in fact, want us to enjoy every expression of His goodness in our lives. So here’s a question I want to invite you to sit with this week:

What about where you already are is worthy of your rejoicing?

Table your thoughts about all the things that might make your life better. I’m sure you can think of a lot. I can too. But let’s set those thoughts aside for a moment and think about all that’s already worthy of our rejoicing.

Here’s the thing: You can answer this question in the context of a moment, a day, or even a season.

You can stop in any given moment and ask the Spirit to show you His goodness within it.

You can also incorporate it into a prayer of examen, looking for the expressions of God’s goodness that were present in your day. Or you can do the same looking at the entirety of the season of life you’re in.

So maybe you want to find a creative way to keep this question front of mind throughout the day. Maybe you want to start practicing the examen once a day, or once a week. Regardless, every season invites us to enjoy something. Yes, life is hard. Yes, we walk through trials and tests in life. Yes, we will experience many dark days.

AND…

Every season invites us to enjoy something. One of the most powerful ways we can resist bowing to the dark days of our lives is by fighting to see even the smallest expressions of God’s goodness within them.