[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:09] Welcome to another edition of the weekday podcast. Pastor Chuck and I absolutely love getting to do these. If we can ever pray for you, drop us an
[email protected] well, today I want to talk about joy in the middle. Because the truth that will mess with you is this that the most joyful people you know probably aren't the ones that have their lives all together. What I mean by that is they're not the people with perfect families and zero debt and a kitchen that looks like it belongs on hgtv.
[00:00:35] They're the ones who somehow figured out how to sing before anything actually got better. And that shouldn't make sense, but somehow it does. Because joy. And when I talk about joy, I'm talking about that real soul deep God breathed in. Joy often shows up in the exact places that fear wants to take over.
[00:00:52] So in Luke 1, as we've been talking about Mary's song this week, her song shouldn't exist. When Mary sings her song in Luke 1, nothing in her circumstances suggests joy. Nothing points to stability or clarity or safety. If anything, her life has just become way more complicated. And yet she sings.
[00:01:11] Listen to how she starts. She says in Luke 1:46, my soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior.
[00:01:20] Mary doesn't sing because her life is simple. She sings because her God is faithful. She doesn't sing when the miracle arrives. She sings while everything is still wildly uncertain. Her world is shaking, but her joy is on the rise. And that gives us the anchor we need. Here's the idea today. Joy. It doesn't wait for the miracle. Joy begins when God is present. Joy is not a destination.
[00:01:46] Here's what we keep getting. We treat joy like the finish line, like it's something we get to experience once everything works out. But Mary shows us something very, very different. Joy isn't the result of everything coming together. Joy is the result of someone holding us together. And there's a distinction there. Joy rises right in the middle of mystery. Not when everything resolves.
[00:02:08] Not when every fear disappears. Not when every prayer is answered exactly the way we want him.
[00:02:14] Joy arises when we stop demanding clarity and start trusting the One who has never failed his people.
[00:02:20] So today I want you to ask this question of yourself. What are you waiting for? What miracle are you holding out for before you'll let joy in? Because circumstances might not resolve the way you hoped, clarity might not arrive on your timeline. But God is here now, and joy is available now. Now, Mary didn't have clarity. She didn't have guarantees, but she did have God. And she sang anyway. So what would change if you stopped waiting and you started singing? Because joy doesn't wait for the answer. It trusts the one who gives it joy. It doesn't wait for the miracle. It begins when God is present. And I'm telling you, he's present with you today. Have a great day.
