Experiencing Joy in Prison

“As long as you live for yourself, trying to find peace and happiness and joy for yourself, you'll never find it…. It's when you turn from yourself to another, Jesus Christ, and decide that you will allow Him to rule over your life and that you are going to live for Him. That’s when you find joy.” – Tony Walliser 

Read Philippians 1:1-2 

Experiencing Joy in Prison 

Joy is not a liquid dishwashing detergent. Actually it is, but it’s not the kind of joy we mean when talking about “the joy of life” or, more importantly, “the joy of the Lord.” 

How would you define “joy”? Joy is commonly confused with happiness. For instance, taking a joy ride. Driving fast can give us a thrill, making us feel happy. But if a police officer pulls us over for speeding, some much for that “joy.” In its place we experience unhappiness. 

Joy comes from the inside, while happiness is generated from the outside, largely determined by things that happen to us. Happenings – often events over which we have little or no control. 

Take buying a new car for example. You’ve been driving the old clunker for quite a while and replacing it with a shiny new (or new-to-you) vehicle makes you happy. That is, until a few days later when you’re heading to the gym and another driver ignores the stop sign and smacks into your new car’s right fender. (As happened to me a while back.) 

Happiness? Gone. But can you still experience joy? Definitely. Followers of Jesus have that “joy, joy, joy, joy down in our hearts,” as the children’s song goes. That’s not subject to outward changes in our lives – positive or negative. Even in the face of troubling news we can experience “the peace that passes all understanding,” as Philippians 4:7 describes it. We can have the joy of knowing the Lord has promised, “I am with you always,” as He told His disciples in Matthew 28:20 – through good times and bad times. 

Look at it this way: the average body temperature of human beings is 98.6. When we go outside and it’s cold, our hands and feet might feel like icicles, but put a thermometer in our mouth and it still reads something close to 98.6. It’s the same when we’re in the hot sun for a little while and we start to sweat. Outwardly we might feel like we’re burning up, but if we don’t stay out too long our body temp remains steady. 

This is the difference between joy and happiness. The apostle Paul exhorted us to, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Writing to believers in ancient Thessalonica, he again wrote, “Rejoice always…. In everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). 

If you’re thinking, ‘Well, Paul, that’s easy for you to say. You don’t know my circumstances,’ consider again. He wrote his letter to the Philippians while in prison, accommodations that weren’t luxurious by any stretch of the imagination. Paul also knew his days on earth were numbered. The Roman officials and religious leaders of the day were none too pleased with his constant preaching about Jesus and couldn’t wait to silence him permanently. 

What about Jesus? Hebrews 12:2 reminds us, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame….” It doesn’t say the Lord was happy about this, but even as He experienced the most excruciating execution ever devised, His joy couldn’t be extinguished.  

We live in a sin-infested, broken world. Happiness will be fleeting at best. It’s like watching a championship football game. We feel happy when our team scores, taking the lead. We’re smiling and high-fiving everyone within reach. But then the opponent takes the next kickoff and returns it for a touchdown, regaining the lead. Bye-bye happiness. 

Not so with joy. It remains. Even when someone crumples your new car; when unexpected bills pop up; when the doctor gives you some bad news; when you’re not offered the job you hoped for, even though you thought the interview went great. Your smile might be turned upside-down because happenings have taken away your happiness. But you can still experience abiding, unwavering joy.  

“The joy of the Lord is your strength,” we read in Nehemiah 8:10. And King David, who endured his share of hardship and adversity, wrote, “The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song” (Psalm 28:7). 

Do you know this kind of joy?