Pure Joy
Pure Joy
When you watch a child, you can see pure joy. When you watch a puppy, you can see pure joy. When you watch a cat, you can see pure evil. As adults it gets harder and harder to see pure joy or even know what that means at times. Is anything pure? Completely? 100%? No additives or impurities? Especially joy? Think about it this way, we have moments of joy, but they are usually squelched pretty fast with the cell phone going off, or an email that comes through, or simple chores that have to take place. You might get a phone call that causes pure joy from a friend you haven’t spoken to in years, but it comes at a time when your children are arguing and fighting in the floor in front of you. Or you had a great day at work that brought you pure joy in what you do, but you go home to a spouse that had a bad day, so… your joy is over. How do you hold on to pure joy? I wish I had that answer in full, but I don’t and I won’t pretend to and make a simple blog post on “Five Happy Hops to Pure Joy.”
However, I met someone last week who seems to have Pure Joy, almost all the time. Let me introduce you to my new friend, Ki! That is short for his full name which I never really understood, nor did I need to because he always answered to Ki and that that is what he preferred. Ki did not introduce himself to me, but after hearing him sing, I introduced myself to him. I was in a worship service where I was getting ready to preach another riveting message that would hopefully transform the room and everyone would be in awe (let the sarcasm flow). I had decided to sit in the back of the room to watch everyone instead of the traditional front row so I could jump on stage. Little did I know that I was getting ready to see Pure Joy that transcended the room and even took me from a room to 200-300 to being an audience of one.
Many times when I speak I don’t sing, but just listen to preserve my voice, especially when I have to speak multiple times in a very short period of time like this experience was going to be. So, sitting in the back of the room listening to worship songs being sung I hear a voice to my right that was not the voice of an angel as we would normally refer to someone who has an incredible voice. But it was as close to the voice of a real angel that I have ever heard. He was not in tune for the melody or even the harmony. He even missed the beat on a few of the stanzas. However, he did not miss a word. More important than that he entered into a place of PURE JOY and PURE WORSHIP. As soon as the announcements were over and the worship songs started, Ki took off his headphones from the computer game he was playing and stood up and began singing to an audience of one. There was no one else in the room except Ki and Jesus. He sang loud and proud, raising his hands and closing his eyes as his body swayed to the beat of the music. Ki caught my attention and I was mesmerized. I could not help to stare at him in awe and wondered to myself if this is what worship would look and feel like by all of us when we are in the presence of God someday in heaven.
Two minutes prior to that I was going through my opening paragraph in my mind of the message and the first two points so that I would not have to glance at my notes. Now I didn’t care about speaking but just wanted to have what Ki had. This went on for about 20 minutes and then the music ended and there was a prayer. At the end of the prayer Ki sat down and put those headphones back on and started playing his game again until the end of the service. As I walked to stage, I thought to myself—I wonder how I could get what Ki has—Pure Joy! At first, I thought maybe the key was wearing headphones during the announcements and sermon so that you can’t hear them to have pure joy, but that did not do anything to stroke my ego so I abandoned that thought pretty quickly. But I did wonder if we gave more than we got or praised more than we postured ourselves to receive if we would put ourselves in a position to experience PURE JOY.
The next night at worship I sat a little closer to Ki. I guess you could say he drew me in. Like clockwork right after announcements—headphones off and commence to worship! PURE JOY, again! After worship—sit down and put headphones back on.
After the worship service I sought out Ki and introduced myself and told him how much I enjoyed his singing and worshiping with him. His response, “Thanks, I love singing to Jesus!” and then he walked off. I chuckled a little that that was it and then I wondered if Pure Joy starts with simplicity of focus. If I were not distracted by what I had to say in just a few minutes or what I was wearing, or what I had to do tomorrow or when I get home, and a hundred other things would pure joy be easier to tap into. This experience (and this blog post) may leave more questions than answers, but at least gets me to thinking about something that seems to have eluded me most of my life.
I was then reminded of a Bible verse. James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything… This IS NOT what I saw in Ki. What I was observing seemed to be the opposite of this. It seemed to be a singular focus that brought pure joy, NOT facing trials of many kinds. But then I started wondering what Ki had been through in his life. What frustrations, losses, hurts, aggravations, etc. that would bring him to the point of pure joy.
At dinner I had the privilege of talking with Ki’s grandparents and finding out a little more about him. Ki is a highly functioning autistic young man who by the age of 8 went through 13 surgeries (trials of many kinds), his father left by the age of 5 due to the stress and strain it caused on the marriage (trials of many kinds), was bullied and picked on in school from 1st grade on (trials of many kinds), gets frustrated at times because he can’t express himself or understand how others are trying to communicate to him (trials of many kinds), can’t drive or be out on his own (trials of many kinds), most likely will be dependent on others for his well-being (trials for many kinds), his grandparents had to raise him because his mom could not as a single mom (although she is still involved in his life) and the list goes on. Understanding a little of where Ki comes from helped me understand he had something else that has evaded me in life--True Perseverance. Ki overcame!
I have had struggles of many kinds as well. Go back and read all my past blog posts and then keep reading more in the future, and they will be full of my trials. BUT, I am still stuck in many of mine. They still haunt me, define me, enslave me, and keep me from being mature and complete, not lacking anything. Most days I feel I lack most everything, but somehow Ki let it go and moved on towards perfection in Christ. I told you that this blog would raise more questions than answers, but I hope we all will stop and reflect on what it is that keeps us from experiencing pure joy more often in life. What is it about our lives, past and present trials, the pace in which we live, or negative self-talk or behaviors that might be keeping us from experiencing a completeness and in turn PURE JOY.
I will be forever grateful for Ki and others like him, who have allowed me just a small glimpse into their world so that I can see what having pure joy might look like.