"Tickled"—April 20, 2023

"Tickled"—April 20, 2023

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even in now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3-9)

There’s a mouthful there, I’ll admit. But woven through that dense little paragraph is this idea of joy that comes from loving Jesus, even when we can’t see him in the room. And that is a powerful idea. If you want to have a life filled with joy, love Jesus.

But you don’t get joy by trying to make yourself joyful, the same way they say you can’t tickle yourself. Scientists say your brain is wired to anticipate how your own touch should feel, so you can’t surprise your body into an automatic response of feeling tickled. Well, same with joy. It takes you by surprise from a blind spot. Sort of like the old John Lennon lyric, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” joy is what happens to you while you are busy being focused on loving someone else.  Joy, in other words, is generated by love and moves outward like love, in all directions.

In other words, you don’t “get” joy or “achieve” joy by aiming for it. You don’t pursue joy like a goal to be checked off a to-do list. In fact, there’s really no point in trying to make yourself joyful by chasing after this or that—not a new job, not a bigger house, not a new significant other, not a better parking space. You don’t reach joy by searching for joy, actually—joy enfolds you when your focus is turned to loving Jesus, and loving the way Jesus loves.

Why is that? Well, maybe part of it is just the nature of joy, which always points beyond itself and leads us beyond ourselves, too. Joy isn’t getting to hoard the last piece of cake for yourself—joy is when you have the last piece of cake and you like it so well that you choose to share it with someone around you because it is simply so good you can’t keep it to yourself anymore. Joy isn’t when I get what I want—joy is when some energy bubbles up inside to know that you have helped someone else whom you love to be lifted up, even just a little bit. It’s always aimed outside of me. That’s why you never reach joy by aiming for joy—joy comes along for the ride when you are aiming to show love. But the moment you do something just for the sake of the “good deed vibe” you think it will give you, or do it just for other people to notice, or so that you get proper credit for it, the joy turns to ash in your mouth. It shrivels like a balloon with the air sucked out, or like a sail that’s been turned in the wrong direction and so loses all of its wind—because the moment you try and make yourself joyful, you are aiming your focus back on yourself.

Curiously enough, the Founding Fathers of our country may have unknowingly admitted as much when they talked about “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, rather than just saying that we have the “right to happiness.” Happiness is one of those things you can keep chasing til you are blue in the face, but it’s always like running after the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Saying you have the right to pursue happiness is a little like saying you have the right to chase your own tail—sure, you can try, but you’ll never catch it, and if you do, what will you do once you’ve got it?

Joy doesn’t work like that. Joy comes from being pointed beyond yourself to someone else—in other words, it comes out of love. (Note: in the passage from Galatians where Paul lists off the “fruit of the Spirit,” that love just flows right into joy… hmmm, almost like Paul knew what he was talking about, eh?) So for our passage today from 1 Peter, which many of us heard this past Sunday as well, there is this central theme that we can have great joy now, even in the face of suffering trials, because we love Jesus. (Of course, we love Jesus because he first loved us, so this always really starts with God…) But when you love, you aren’t aiming your attention at yourself, which is exactly what makes your heart ripe for joy to spring up.

Today, what would it look like if we thought less in terms of “What will get ME the most happiness and joy?” and more in terms of simply, “How can I love Jesus, and love the people Jesus brings with him into my day?” As we dare to try it, I dare say we’ll end the day simply… tickled.

Lord God, keep us pointed beyond ourselves so that we can love you more fully and be surprised by the joy that sneaks up on us when we are looking the other way.