Joy … like Bronze
by Jared Johnson
It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
Charles Dickens wrote those lines almost 170 years ago, but do they describe your typical Christmas season right here and now in the 21st century?
Near-giddy anticipation in my wife, Melinda, boils over the week of Thanksgiving, not just for the family gathering of that holiday, but for the hanging of Christmas lights and other decorations that we’ll do on Thanksgiving weekend on our tree and in various other spots. While the natural world closes in on itself into the darkest month of the year, she revels in the twinkling lights, decorated houses of our neighborhood, the touches of redecoration that she puts throughout our home, and the Christmas baking she’ll do with, well, one of the kids … probably (the eight-year-old, at least, still appreciates making cookies with her).
Christmas, with the special baking, myriad small joys like decorations and rich family moments can make it the best of times.
Christmas, with all the smiles, holiday greetings (‘specially when they’re forced), schedule pressures, reminders of relationships gone awry, pressure of an annual performance review and financial expectations coming from all corners too often makes it the worst of times.
I am not an effusive person. Back in October (we were focusing on discipline), I said the very last word you’d use to describe me is “athlete.” Well, the 2nd-to-last is “joyful.” Of all our themes this year, joy was the one topic I hoped I wouldn’t write about. I have been Bible-verse-shamed more than once about joy. Yes, I know; “joy” goes beyond circumstance. Yes, I know “joy” comes from God Himself. Yes, I know “joy” is / can / should be independent of and beyond my day-to-day emotional foibles. I get it.
In any case, there are, like the myriad small joys, also myriad reasons people either miss, or miss out on, the joy of Christmas. We might be dealing with deeply painful hurt and remember previous Christmas seasons that were far richer and more pleasant than this year is shaping up to be. There may be 849,612 schedule demands and we just blow right by “the reason for the season” and on the 27th or 28th look back, suddenly realizing we were never fully present in Christmas because of all our rushing around Christmas. In both those scenarios, we might be feeling “the worst of times” because we recognize sharp dissonance between “good news of great joy for all people” (Luke 2.10) and our daily reality.
If your daily is a grind and it bears much more resemblance to Job’s “months of futility, long and weary nights of misery” (Job 7.3) rather than the exuberance of what could be Christmas, take some courage, fellow pilgrim.
A 1st Christmas season after great loss – of a loved one (spouse, child, others), of health, of employment, of friendship/relationship – stings deeply. The infinity of deity came to this world! He came into the muck and mire (Psalm 40.2) of this sin-stained world as a little lumpy ball of nerve-twitching, crying infant and He really was King of the Universe and so much more! But then here I/we/you are in our predicaments of pain, lack, obstruction, bleakness.
“Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze?” (Job 6.12)
If only.
One of my favorite non-Bible writers is Aldo Leopold. In a December essay from his Sand County Almanac, he wrote about “Pines Above Snow.”
… Pines have earned the reputation of being “evergreen” by the same device that governments use to achieve the appearance of perpetuity: overlapping terms of office. By taking on new needles on the new growth of each year and discarding old needles at longer intervals, they have led the casual observer to believe that the needles remain forever green. … Then the needles fall and are filed in the duff to enrich the wisdom of the stand. It is this accumulated wisdom that hushes the footsteps of whoever walks under pines. It’s in midwinter that I sometimes glean from my pines something more important than woodlot politics or the news of wind and weather. This is especially likely to happen on some gloomy evening when snow has buried all irrelevant detail and the hush of elemental sadness lies heavy on every living thing. My pines, nevertheless, each with his burden of snow, stand ramrod-straight, rank on rank, and in the dusk beyond I sense the presence of hundreds more.
“Standing ramrod-straight” reminds me of yet other statements – Bible statements.
Put on all of God’s armor so that you’ll be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. … after the battle you’ll be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt… (Ephesians 6.11, 13, 14)
Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. (1 Corinthians 16.13)
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. … (Colossians 1.23)
With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter. (2 Thessalonians 2.15)
I have written and sent this short letter to you with the help of Silas, whom I commend to you as a faithful brother. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you’re experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace. (1 Peter 5.12)
Christmas joy might feel, or just be, elusive this year. Every day of our Christian lives, we’re pulled by paradoxes. We lose our lives to find them. We take the last place in line – but then somehow find ourselves first. We humble ourselves … only to be lifted up by God. We die to ourselves, which is living for God (Luke 9.23, Romans 12.1). We empty ourselves and give away, then find He inundates us with overflowing blessing (Malachi 3.10). The lowest person is the greatest leader (Luke 22.26). We even give up our prepared sophistry just to be reminded providentially of exactly what to say (Luke 12.11-12). The one who died the loneliest death (“My God why’ve you forsaken me!?) literally sandwiched between two anonymous criminals and who was buried in a borrowed tomb is KING OF ALL.
Joy, as with so much else in a Christian’s life, is a paradox. So, embrace the paradox. Even, especially, if you feel like you’re just “white knuckling” it, go with it. Steady on. Keep that grip (Hebrews 12.12). Stand there and expect God to do His thing.
Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze?
Embrace the paradox and take notice of what God told His man Jeremiah – twice.
Get up and prepare for action. Go out and tell everyone [people of Judah] everything I tell you to say. Don’t be afraid of them, or I’ll make you look foolish in front of them. For see, today I have made you strong like a fortified city that can’t be captured, like an iron pillar or a bronze wall. You’ll stand against the whole land – kings, officials, priests and people of Judah. They’ll fight you, but they’ll fail. I’m with you. I’ll take care of you. I, Yahweh, have spoken! (Jeremiah 1.17-19)
Then [Jeremiah] said, “God, you know what’s happening to me. Please step in and help me. Punish my persecutors! … Why then does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook, like a spring that’s gone dry.” This is how Yahweh responds: … “You must influence them; don’t let them influence you! They’ll fight against you like an attacking army, but I’ll make you as secure as a fortified wall of bronze. They will not conquer you, for I’m with you to protect and rescue you. I, God, have spoken! Yes, I’ll certainly keep you safe from these wicked men. I’ll rescue you from their cruel hands." (Jeremiah 15.15, 18-21)
Nerd out with me for a sec and just try to imagine how stout a WALL of bronze would be! Denser than granite, strong as (and heavier than) steel, just try to do anything against it.
“Context before content” and this context has God speaking solely to His man Jeremiah. That said, there are, no doubt, parallels between then and now. God’s character doesn’t change like shifting shadows (James 1.17) and we still feel the despondence of bleak situations like Job and Jeremiah did. But our good Father and King is still in the business of fortifying and rescuing His people. “’God, help!’ we cry in our trouble, and He saves us from our distress” (Psalm 107.6, 19, 28).
Jesus is the author of our faith (Hebrews 12.2). Invite Him, today, to write another line of your story in His joy, with His hope, for His fame, on His timetable, by His blood.
