Talking about my joy
Feeling and expressing the joy of Christ—not just telling people about it
In our small group recently, my minister said, “You talk a lot about joy.” He was right. I have become a lot more aware of joy since joining Crossroad Church about 18 months ago.
Our senior minister is putting Jesus’s command to make disciples at the core of what we do and talk about as a church. Our identity as children of God is foundational and includes the many privileges we receive as his children. The big application for me personally has been to allow the joy I have as a child of God to inform my attitude and my behaviour towards others. This article, I hope, will be the first of a four-part series looking at our lives as disciples of Christ, something I’ve had the privilege of thinking about over the last year and a half.
Being at Crossroad made me realise the lack of connection between my motivation as a missionary and the joy I had in Christ. Don’t get me wrong—I did have joy about what Jesus had done for me, but that didn’t necessarily inform how I acted towards others.
I knew that joy was important and that church should be a place where people could experience joy—giving and receiving it—for instance, the kids at Sunday School. But when it came to discussing that at a leaders’ meeting, I myself wasn’t particularly joyful. Instead, I tended to get impatient, frustrated, and speak strongly for why Sunday School should be more fun! My behaviour towards others revealed the gap between the joy I understood in my head and the joy I felt in my heart. I was not demonstrating it in my actions.
In my case, what often motivated me was my desire to do a good job for God as a missionary. I was responding, in principle, to all God had done for me but not revelling in it for myself. That meant I knew about joy but didn’t necessarily show it or talk about the joy I felt. I was trying to teach how to follow Christ while lacking the attitude of one who follows him.
Modelling Christ
One thing I’ve been taught a lot at Crossroad is that much of discipleship is about modelling; we model the attitudes and actions that flow from a transformed heart to those around us. As Paul says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1 NIV). My previous problem was that I was saying that we wanted Sunday School to be fun so kids could experience the joy of Christ while people couldn’t see that in me.
The change occurred after I started attending Crossroad and saw a group of people who were committed to following Christ and were motivated to do that by the joy they had in him. I learnt joy as it was modelled to me, and that convinced me (again, perhaps) of the importance of joy for our walk as disciples and for those of us serving as missionaries. Small wonder then that Jesus prayed that his disciples would have “the full measure of my joy within them” (John 17:13). Jesus certainly knew that joy would both motivate and sustain his disciples.
Where does our joy come from?
Jesus has saved us from judgement, and we are not just freed prisoners but children of God, with all the privileges that go with that. God is our father who loves it when we come to him in prayer, read his Word, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters. He loves every effort, big or small, that we make in serving others and bringing them closer to a relationship with him. In fact, every part of the gospel, the good news of Christ, is a source of joy for those of us who are now in Christ. It is really important that my joy is rooted in what Christ has done for me and my new status as God’s child because life as a Christian in Japan can be hard or frustrating or slow.
As I was thinking about joy, I remembered a Japan Harvest article from last year about Dennis Foster and the impact he had as an African American missionary for over 25 years (Japan Harvest Summer 2023). What stood out to me was that people in Obanazawa in Yamagata remembered how Dennis quickly made friends because he was always smiling. This was even though life in Obanazawa was initially difficult for him, particularly as a foreigner and a black man. Here was someone who did work that wouldn’t be thought of as impressive, yet he made a lasting impact for Christ because of the joy he had in Christ.
Take some time to consider your own situation. Do you know what motivation sustains you? What are the primary reasons you are currently here in Japan? Why are you a disciple of Christ? Why do you want to tell people about the Lord Jesus and encourage others to do the same? Is it time to rediscover joy?