The Reason for My Joy

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from
God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not
even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No
power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing
in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of
God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38–39

In my closet, I have a plaid skirt that’s more than twenty-five years old, five sizes too small, and quite out of style. Believe me, there’s no chance I’ll ever wear it again. Not on your life. But will I discard it? Not on your life. My daddy gave it to me.

Anything from him, I plan to keep. Although he’s been dead for decades, he’s still very much alive in my mind. He was a wonderful man: competent, tender, funny, intelligent, and full of wisdom. I thought he was the greatest guy on the planet.

The two of us enjoyed a “mutual admiration society.” One year I was trying to decide what to give him for his birthday, and my brothers suggested a framed picture of myself, candles, and matches. “Since he worships you anyway,” they reasoned, “he could build a little shrine.”

Daddy gave me tangible gifts, and many intangible ones as well. I received letters from him every week when I was away at college, and for years afterward while I worked in another city. The letters were laced with love, encouragement from God’s Word, and profound understanding of me—not only as his daughter but also as a person. He had my best interest at heart and made that very clear, all the time. By his lavish giving, unconditional love, and awareness of my deepest needs, Daddy was all the cheering squad I ever needed. Because of him, I had an excellent model of a gracious, caring heavenly Father.

Although we don’t all have that kind of earthly model of love and affection, everybody who is a child of God has a heavenly Father who exceeds all expectations and imagination. My dad may have seemed like the ringleader of our home, but the reason he was such a great parent was he knew the true Ringleader intimately. It was my father’s relationship with Christ that made him such a quality person.

Each of us who knows Christ personally can relate to a perfect heavenly Father and become more like Him every day. That’s incredible! When we become part of God’s family, we immediately receive numerous gifts. To name just a few:

• We’re set free from an unrelenting law to experience unmerited grace (Romans 6:14; Galatians 3:25).
• We’re given immediate access to the throne of God for praise or petition (Hebrews 4:14–16).
• We’re indwelled by the Spirit of God and guaranteed His presence in all our heartaches and temptations (1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22).
• We’re promised a life that never ends and a glorious home in heaven (1 John 5:11).
• We’re given a job to do that has an eternal purpose (Matthew 28:19).
• We’re forgiven of everything we ever did wrong (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:13–14).
• We’re assured that all our needs will be met (Philippians 4:19).
• We’re promised that God will never leave us or forsake us (Psalm 37:25; Hebrews 13:5).

These are only the tip of the iceberg of gifts that become ours. And get this—they’re free! All these gifts are given to us simply because we believe what God said, receive what God did, and are now recipients of who God is—the giver of abundant, eternal life.
There is nothing average about the God we know, the Father we long to serve. He’s unconventional and exorbitant. He’s extravagant in His giving. He’s unrestrained in His love for us. In fact, God is extraordinary in every way. He’s outrageous! If you and I were to catch even a glimpse of who He is, our lives would never be the same. And yet, He’s shown us who He is. His truth and glory are revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. And we see it every day in the universe He created, in the lives of others, and in our own experiences. We often miss it, but it’s there. We just forget to notice.

Let’s notice. Let’s pay careful attention. Let’s let our everyday lives be invaded and transformed by this loving, gracious, wonderful, perfectly outrageous God.

The joy He provides is outrageous because it is completely unencumbered by the circumstances we face.

His grace is outrageous as well. It is unmerited, unwarranted, undeserved, and unrelenting. His Word says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12 NASB).

And peace! The Bible promises, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NASB). Whose life wouldn’t be transformed if he or she experienced that kind of peace no matter what was happening?

And just think about His love. It never ends. It never even wavers. The apostle Paul thrilled at this outrageous thought: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39 NASB).

And freedom? Now this is fabulous! We have freedom from the law, freedom in Christ, freedom to be all we were created to be. “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1 NASB).

There’s no question about God giving us outrageous hope. Hope enables us to feel the intangible, imagine the invisible, and achieve the impossible. We believe God keeps His promises, and with confidence we wait for them to be fulfilled. What God told His people through the prophet Jeremiah is still true for us today: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NASB).

God’s whole plan to reconcile the human race to Himself was outrageous. It was inevitable that His own Son would be outrageous too! Jesus was a man of paradoxes who shocked, surprised, incensed, or delighted everyone He met. As His followers, we shouldn’t be surprised that our lives will take some outrageous twists and turns, or that we will sometimes stand out as “circus freaks” in a world that doesn’t recognise our glorious nature in Christ. As Thelma [Wells] put it, to be a person of faith means that “your elevator doesn’t go to the top floor. Your clock ticks in a counterclockwise direction. Your cart is before the horse. And your joy is always ignited in spite of your delicate condition.”

If we really took God at His Word and lived out the implications of these outrageous attributes, our lives would be characterised by what Eugene Peterson calls “the plain meaning of the message of Christ.” There would be much more than mere moral reformation in us; our lives would be utterly transformed! We’d be like the early Christians whose humdrum human lives became linked to the very life of God Himself—the divine Ringleader of the whole shebang. It was then, if you recall, they turned the world upside down.

Grasp the outrageous truth: God is here. God is now. And He longs to pour out all of who He is into your life every day. His life can be in you and flow through you. Outrageous!