Rescued. Included. Valuable.

I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:18

The eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Acts 8:39

REFLECTION:
Joy is one of those words that needs to be reclaimed, I think.

Too often, we talk about joy and happiness in the same breath...like they are the same.

For me, I think about happiness as something that is fleeting because it is situational. An example: I was happy last night when we ended up having dinner at A.J. Bombers downtown, and it was "Totcho Tuesday" (meaning, tater tots like nachos with toppings...mmmmm). That made me happy.

Joy is so much more robust than that. I feel joy in the deep moments. I feel joy when putting my children to bed, and they look up at me and say, "I love you, Daddy." I feel joy when my wife and I finally get a lunch date for just the two of us, or 10 uninterrupted minutes to sit and talk about the day. I feel joy when I see a full sanctuary, and feel the vibrant movement of the Spirit among the people gathered for worship.

This is the kind of rejoicing that comes in the Bible.

Habbakuk rejoices because of salvation, rescue, and love, even in the face of hardship, invasion, and war.

The eunuch in Acts 8 rejoices because of being included, and given an identity other than "servant." Eunuchs were men who had been castrated in order to cement their role as a humble servant. This man wasn't used to being included in religious rites; while he was a Jewish believer, he would not have been allowed into the Temple because his castration would have made him permanently ritually "unclean." Philip opens up the Scriptures to him, explains how Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies, and baptizes him in some water they find along the journey. The eunuch is now finally defined by something other than his role as servant...he is called brother in Christ...and at this, he rejoices!

Today, I am going to start my day by taking a moment for rejoicing. What deep and beautiful things do I have to be grateful for and joyful for? Like Habbakuk, I can say that God's promised deliverance from present hardship is something I can trust. That feels like a cause for rejoicing! And like the eunuch, I can say that even though I often let other things define me, indeed the water poured over my head 37 years ago defines me as included, involved, and loved. That also feels like a cause for rejoicing!

The picture above is not a stock image from Google...it is a picture I took years ago at our family's hunting cabin in Michigan. My son was sneaking through my mother's legs, and somehow the camera snapped at precisely the right moment, capturing one of the most beautiful un-staged moments of joy I have ever seen in a snapshot. This was a hard summer. Difficult things were going on in our family. Loss. Illness. You name it. But deep moments of joy break through, even then...the question is simply, can we pause long enough to notice them?

As you read this, I would invite you to pause in your day and simply rest on the two blessed assurances that come from today's Scripture snippets above: your present trial will not have the final say about you...and you are defined by so much more than the labels you yourself or others place on you. God is one who rescues us. God is one who includes us and defines us as loved.

May we rejoice! Life is a gift, and today we receive.

PRAYER:
God, give us the vision to see beyond our current trials, and beyond those forces that seek to define or limit us. We praise you for the ways you rescue us, love us, and call us "included" and "valuable." Help us to live centered in you, so we can be part of your rescue project, calling others "included" and "valuable" as well. Amen.