It was my junior year in college. I had taken some intentional action steps to grow in my faith. I was surrounding myself with those who genuinely cared about my spiritual development. I didn’t realize it at the time, but not only had I found my people, but I found my guy. Neale Davis, who was on staff with a college ministry now called Cru, would meet with me every week. During one of our meetings, he asked me, “So what are you doing this summer?” Of course, being the typical male college student, I didn’t have a plan. I said, “I will probably go back home and work.” Before I could even finish my sentence, he interjected this statement. “You need to go on a mission trip, and especially one in a different culture. It will be good for you to experience what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes for a change.” I said yes because I trusted Neale, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Something special happened on my first mission trip, and it continues to happen each time I say yes. The mission trips I have taken involved going to developing countries where the people have minimal material resources available and a corrupt government that they can’t depend on for assistance. They often wonder how God will provide enough for their daily needs. But it never fails, when you meet a local who is a fellow believer, you will be surprised by joy. The joy is in their eyes! The joy is in their smile! The joy is in their hug! The joy is in their excitement that you are there! Their joy immediately tells you they know the Lord!
You might be aware that it was joy that led C.S. Lewis to his conversion from atheism to theism and finally to Christianity. His book, entitled Surprised by Joy, shares his story. You will notice I borrowed his phrase. Not a bad guy to borrow from. Lewis defines joy this way: “Unsatisfied desire, longing, craving, yearning which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. It is a technical term for a profound, bittersweet longing or ‘stab’ of desire for something beyond this world—specifically God—that cannot be manufactured or controlled.”
Joy is distinct not only from pleasure in general but from happiness. Pleasure and happiness are often more in our power, whereas joy is, to use Lewis’s definition, a surprise. The surprise of joy leads us to the Lord himself. Joy is a holy longing. Nehemiah’s words come to mind… “The joy of the Lord is your strength!”
Nehemiah’s statement wasn’t an “Aw, shucks, guys, look on the bright side of life! Things aren’t so bad!” It was an acknowledgment that things were hard—about as difficult as they could get for the Israelites. And yet, in the midst of all the physical and emotional despair, Nehemiah declares: “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our LORD. Don’t be dejected, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!”
But the context that Nehemiah speaks into gives depth to the phrase. Celebration when life goes a different way than we intended isn’t escapism; it’s a hard-core way to declare that our strength is found in God, not our circumstances. Throughout Scripture, this is the story of God’s people and a picture of how joy is developed as a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is cultivated when we realize we can find strength, hope, and freedom in the Lord, despite what is happening to us or inside of us.
Neale was and is right. It wasn’t simply about going on a mission trip but being surprised by joy. He saw I had a holy longing, and I needed to have the encounter of others with that same longing from a completely different context.
In a few weeks, a team of 13 people will have the opportunity to be surprised by joy as we travel to Catacamas, Honduras. Please pray that each of us would encounter God in new ways, with fresh eyes and a holy longing. As I have learned from previous mission trips, this holy longing is what leads us into a deeper relationship with God.
This is where Lewis’ writing on joy is worth the price of the book. “I had hoped that the heart of reality might be of such a kind that we can best symbolize it as a place,” Lewis writes. “Instead, I found it to be a Person.”
As I recently read those words, I was convicted about how many times a day I am looking for my joy to be found in the places I find myself instead of the person I am hidden in.
I pray you will be encouraged today that your joy is found in a Person (Jesus), not a place!