Gutsy. I’ve taken this word to a new level at times, which can elicit simultaneous shock and a chuckle from my husband. No help to be found in the paint department at Home Depot? No problem. I just reached over the counter, picked up the sleek shiny store intercom phone and before long, you could hear my voice echoing through the whole store, “Customer service to the paint department! Customer service to paint!” My husband whispered, “What are you DOING?” to which I replied, “I really don’t want to wait all day..do you?” Let’s get some help!
I’ve never connected the words “gutsy” and “joy” before, but I’m clicking them together like two Legos at the moment and feeling intrigued. This concept reaches beyond trite plastic answers about joy that I would find on flat smiley face magnets at a bookstore. This is a joy that is more like throwing down a gauntlet. It’s a daring move in the face of an enemy. This is 3D joy that I can get into.
In my pastor’s wife’s journey…especially in the hard and lonely parts of it…the very last thing I wanted to hear is something trite about having joy when I wondered if our church situation was where I should even be. People I thought were on our team suddenly weren’t, and I found myself in the eye of a hurricane where it was exceedingly quiet and lonely. Perhaps your ministry journey hasn’t turned out at all like you thought it would…and you feel alone and scared. Where in the world does joy fit into that? How could joy fit into that?
Centuries ago, there were two others whose ministry journey also appeared completely off track. The nasty prison in which Paul and Silas found themselves (Acts 16) was likely nowhere on their Google calendar or ministry planning meetings for that year. To most, their situation would appear hopeless and their ministry days over. They could have chosen a path of defeat and self-pity…the most natural option for the dark hole they were in. So it was a gutsy move to sing when their situation was worse than it had ever been and their very lives were threatened. Why would you sing or be joyful when things look so very bad? Doesn’t that make you foolish?
From author Tyler Staton Praying Like Monks Living Like Fools (2022)
“When they sang in a jail cell, they were dragging heaven into a dark corner of earth, and it changed the atmosphere.”
So this move to sing inside the jail was not foolish, it was
- purposeful
- intentional
- strategic…a power move actually.
Instead of being bowled over by the circumstance, they took back some land. This intentionality changed not just the atmosphere and the people around them, I believe it changed Paul and Silas too. I think something grows inside you in the realization that you, a cracked vessel with all you’ve been through, can still make a choice to intentionally place joy where it doesn’t conventionally belong. You realize doing this does not come from your natural self. It is supernatural…with power that could only come from God Himself.
These are moments where the veil between heaven and earth seems a little more thin. Moments where perhaps you can see a little of the “why” behind God keeping you with all your talents and giftings right where you are…the peace and God-given discernment to know in your heart that “the pillar of cloud/fire” (Exodus 13:21-22) is exactly where you are right now..right where you belong…in the center of God’s will. And it is there that you can sing..and sing loudly…when it doesn’t make sense to anybody else except you and your Omnipotent Creator…who is ultimately the source of your help (Psalm 121).
And now a benediction over you:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
Amen. Go take back some land, sisters.
ACTIVITY JUST FOR YOU:
Here is an exercise for you this coming week to take some gutsy joy to your impossible situation.
- Take a 3×5 card and write IN PENCIL HORIZONTALLY something ridiculously impossible…perhaps something you’ve been praying about for a long time.
- Flip the card vertically and IN PEN VERTICALLY write on top of this ridiculously impossible thing either the lyrics to your favorite worship song…or if you can’t think of one…use Psalm 34:1-2 or you can borrow one of my favorites by Chas H. Gabriel (1905),
“How marvelous….how wonderful….
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous….how wonderful
Is my Savior’s love for me.”
- What fades on your 3×5 card? What can you see more clearly? What seems stronger in the face of the impossible? Keep this card with you in your car or keep it in your Bible to remind you of gutsy joy.
RESOURCES:
