Often those blank stares coming back at you are a result of a deep, deep disappointment with God. And if the people we serve were to vocalise their truest feelings, then they might dare to say that ‘God has not done well by me.’
Pastors, priests and preachers can face the exact same absence of joy, which is a sizeable problem as we are the ones who are supposed to have the answers.
So what is the joy issue, so beautifully explored in this edition of Preach? How can we rejoice always when anxiety, failure and an array of mental health issues plague so many? I’m so grateful for Rachael Newham’s well-balanced new book And Yet: finding joy in lament and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
To get at the root of the joy problem, and other disappointments with God, we will need to better grasp the complexity of the human person. The lack of such knowledge has robbed so many of their victory, their confidence in the Christ, and also their abiding joy.
It is no small thing that the unambiguous Jewish teaching of Jesus was that the first commandment is to love the Lord our God out of all of our heart, out of all of our soul, out of all of our mind and out of all of our strength. And, secondly, to love our neighbour every bit as much as we love ourselves [Mark 12]. We, of course, have a human compulsion for turning everything that is fully intended as liberating grace into life-crushing law. So we turn the first commandment into a punitive rod to beat people up with. We corrupt grace so easily and make joyful good news sound more like depressing bad news. Do you recognise the drill?
This is a pity because, properly understood, learning to work with the heart, soul, mind and strength is the passport to lasting joy.
In this context, the heart is best understood as the executive centre of a human person. It is the place of decision, of choice, of resolution and of will. We ‘set our heart’ on something and we ask each other ‘what is your heart’s desire?’
