Finding Joy and Flourishing in God's Presence

I was uh last week in Montana with the son of a very influential teacher in my life Jerry Hawthorne taught New Testament Greek and was a uh extremely formative person and he brought a lot of joy to us and yet he struggled deeply with anxiety and depression and a sense of inadequacy and I got to read through notes that he wrote On The Sermon on the Mount last week was very moving to see that handwriting that was so familiar to me and as he was beginning to talk about the sermon of the mount uh he he started by reflecting on being a church and singing a song and being struck by a phrase that he had sung a hundred times but he had never really thought about it before that happens to us sometimes we go in auto pilot so easily in worship and in life. [00:02:07]

The chorus of this particular song that Jerry Hawthorne wrote about was at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I Reed my sight and now I am happy all the day and Jerry said the phrase that struck him kind of pierced him was that final one and now I'm happy all the day cuz we just sing words like that quite casually and suddenly instruct Jerry to ask the question am I happy all the day and his answer was no not at all often I go through uh an entire day without being happy at all. [00:03:15]

He wrote I am one who struggles with depression and anxiety and has to wrestle deeply with my own emotions and when I sing that song it is not true how can I sing that song and Jerry was also a person of great integrity of character so words and thoughts U were not casual things to him they were not things to be just bandied about gbly and then he thought about that word happy in English of course it's connected often to what happens to us perhaps all kind of from the same roote in the sermon of the mount Jesus started with a word that sometimes translated happy the Greek word is macaros is very very rich word blessed or it could mean to be flourishing. [00:03:59]

In the sermon of Mount it has a particular context to it and that context is that uh we are blessed we are able to flourish we can be happy as we are living in the reality the presence of the kingdom of God the range of God's effective will right here in this world where there is life and where there are birds singing and where the sun is shining somehow I can be happy because God is here and God is given me these friends God has given me the gift of the air that I'm breathing and the heart that is beating and the mind that is working and the body that is still somehow holding together blessed happy flourishing is the one who is loved by God. [00:04:47]

Through the story of Jesus as I align my story with that story Jerry wrote there is a question at the beginning of the song that Isaac Watts wrote you might know it if you know of that song Alas and Did My Savior Bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote his sacred head for a sinner such as I and the answer to that question would he devote his sacred is yes he would and yes he did he devoted his life and his teaching his energy his great heart that sacred head his blood his life to you and to me and I live in that reality and I live in that forgiveness and I live in that freedom and I live in that Grace and so do you. [00:05:32]

At least in that sense even as I struggle with my pain and my inadequacy and my depression and in my at least in that sense I am blessed I can flourish I can experience the joy somehow I can be happy because of what has happened in and through Jesus and then one additional thought in the field of psychology over the last several decades there's a lot of work about happiness it's often called subjective well-being in the research for a bunch of reasons that we don't need to go into right now and one of the lines of research is that everybody has what's called a set point this relates to other areas of life as well but it may well be that there's a kind of genetic predisposition kind of wiring issues ahead of time that set a certain range on how much happiness any given individual is capable. [00:06:20]

It's part of why we shouldn't judge other people because we don't know what their genetic predispositions is what they have to wrestle with in terms of their own wiring and maybe there is a kind of ceiling or a lid for any one of us in a certain area a bit like IQ or something else now it's somewhat controversial it can lead to a kind of fatalism uh but it's altogether possible for any one of us that um given our nature given what it is that we were born with um we will always wrestle with things to a certain degree but here's what I was thinking for some stupid reason and when I am with these people that I have known now in some cases for more than 50 years and that I love dearly and that we have so many shared memories with and jobs come and go but we all have known and loved each other since way before then so it doesn't matter all this much. [00:07:24]

When I just stand up and forget and bang my head it makes them laugh one more time I am given the gift of being able to bring joy to somebody else even if it's just by banging my head and here's what it made me think there there is no set point on the joy that you bring to others there might be a set point it might be part of the fallibility and reality of humanity and finitude of living with a body and genetic predispositions there might be a set point on how much happiness I am capable of even at my best and even if God as God is empowering me but there is no set point on the joy that I'm able to bring to other people so now today you can bring joy to the people people around you you can notice them you can look at them you can ask them a question you can smile at them you can shake their hand or give them a hug. [00:08:17]

You can write something funny or delightful or unexpected in an email you can look at something funny you can if nothing else find an AR cat video and send it to somebody you can Bang Your Head on a life fixture you can bring joy to somebody and there is no set point and of course uh our ultimate example our ultimate inspiration the story that we align our stories with to do that with other people is the story of Jesus who says uh I have come that you might have my joy that my joy might be in you and your joy might be full and he did it in a way that followed the path of great sorrow Alas and Did My Savior Bleed that my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for sinner such as I yes he would yes he did. [00:09:03]

I will rejoice in the Lord I will try to bring joy to the people in my life today this is my story. [00:10:04]