For nearly a year, my daily exercise routine was the same every day of the week. I’d spend 30 minutes doing cardio followed by 30 minutes of weight lifting. Four to five days a week, it was the same thing every day—30 minutes of cardio followed by 30 minutes of weights. But after 52 weeks of this daily routine, my body and mind began to go numb. I lost motivation. I’d wake up and not even want to exercise. So, I recently changed things up. Now, Mondays are spent running. Tuesdays are spent lifting weights. Wednesdays are spent swimming. On Thursdays I return to the weights. And on Fridays I walk or ride my bike (OK, sometimes I don’t do anything on Fridays, but if I do, I walk or ride my bike).
Sometimes we experience something similar in our relationship with Jesus. We earnestly engage in the same spiritual practices day after day after day in an effort to grow closer to Jesus and become more like Jesus. But after months or years of the same spiritual practices day after day after day, our souls and hearts go numb. We lose motivation. And sometimes what we need is to change things up.
In her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Calhoun describes 62 spiritual disciplines. Some of these disciplines are familiar to and likely practiced by many Christians. Some of the more common practices in Calhoun’s list include Bible study (learning what the Bible says and how it intersects our lives), community (investing in and journeying with others in our spiritual life), and intercessory prayer (praying to God about the needs of others). But other disciplines in Calhoun’s list of 62 are unfamiliar and new to contemporary Christians (though they’ve long been common in older Christian traditions). This Sunday night series takes up 10 of the most uncommon disciplines from Calhoun’s list. Adding these unusual spiritual disciplines into your life may breathe freshness and newness into your heart and soul.
#2 – Celebration
This particular discipline has roots in Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit: “22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22-23 ESV).
As Paul writes about the kind of fruit which the Holy Spirit bears in the life of those who follow Christ, he identifies joy near the top of his list. One of the qualities which is to characterize all who follow Jesus is joy. Joy is one of those elements which defines Christians.
But what Paul means by “joy” and what we often think of regarding “joy” may be two different things. Specifically, many of us believe that joy is directly tied to very specific circumstances. We tend to believe that joy is only possible in the presence of certain material things, or in the absence of certain painful things.[i]
Real joy will only be ours once we upgrade to Windows 7, purchase the latest hybrid car, or own the latest large capacity freezer. Real joy will only be ours once we have that college degree, that promotion, or that baby or that spouse. In our culture, joy depends upon the presence of specific material things.
John Ortberg uses Happy Meals to illustrate:[ii] “When we take our children to the shrine of the Golden Arches, they always lust for the meal that comes with a cheap little prize, a combination christened, in a moment of marketing genius, the Happy Meal. You’re not just buying fries, McNuggets, and a dinosaur stamp; you’re buying happiness. Their advertisements have convinced my children they have a little McDonald-shaped vacuum in their souls: “Our hearts are restless till they find their rest in a happy meal”… The problem with the Happy Meal is that the happy wears off, and they need a new fix.” Too often we tie joy to the presence of certain material things. And if we don’t get those material things, we don’t experience joy.
Similarly, we make joy dependent upon the absence of certain painful things. We tend to believe that if you are the victim of injustice, you cannot have joy. If you are in the midst of a breakup, you cannot have joy. If your health is not good, you cannot have joy.
But the joy Paul writes of is not dependent upon the presence of specific material things or the absence of specific painful things. It’s a much deeper kind of joy.
Paul exemplifies this “Spirit”ual joy in his letter to the Philippians: “10I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:10-13 ESV) Paul is writing in the absence of certain material things and in the presence of certain painful things. He’s stuck in jail. He has no comforts of home. But as he reflects on his suffering, he makes this astonishing statement: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Paul’s found it possible to have joy and contentment without certain material things and with certain painful things.
There is a deeper joy available to those who follow Jesus. It is a joy which can characterize us in many types of circumstances. It is a joy that abounds and perseveres across time.
This joy is displayed marvelously in the Psalms.
“Why is everyone hungry for more? ‘More, more,’ they say. ‘More, more.’ I have God’s more-than-enough, More joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees. At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep, For you, God, have put my life back together.” (Ps. 4:6-8 The Message). Everyone else is searching for joy in the latest sale and the most recent possession. But this psalmist has found a greater joy in God.
“I’m thanking you, God, from a full heart, I’m writing the book on your wonders. I’m whistling, laughing, and jumping for joy; I’m singing your song, High God.” (Ps. 9:1 The Message). Knowing and experiencing the work of God has led this psalmist to whistle, laugh, sing and jump for joy.
“Blessed be God— he heard me praying. He proved he’s on my side; I’ve thrown my lot in with him. Now I’m jumping for joy, and shouting and singing my thanks to him.” (Ps. 28:6 The Message). No matter the situation, when you witness God’s presence and God’s listening ear, it can lead to leaps of joy.
Calhoun points us to the first line in Ps. 47:1 “Applause, everyone. Bravo, bravissimo! Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs!” (The Message) The joy that can belong to those who follow God is one that ought to be shouted at the top of our lungs.
Paul and the Psalms reveal this deep and enthusiastic joy which is possible for those who belong to God. It is a joy whose well runs deep and which manifests itself in shouts and songs and leaps and laughter.
But too often we don’t seem to experience this joy or at least we don’t seem to express this joy. James Joyce writes of a man wrestling with a decision of whether or not to become a priest.[iii] In the end this man decides not to become a priest. He declines because he has a vision of what would happen to his face if he became a priest. He fears his face would become like that of other religious people he knew: “a mirthless mask reflecting a sunken day…sourfavored and devout, shot with pink tinges of suffocated anger.” As the man reflected on the Christian people whom he knew, he saw no joy in their faces. They were faces that were sunken, sourfavored, and shot with pink tinges of suffocated anger.
How then do we get that joy which Paul and the Psalms exemplify so well? Part of the answer lies in our view of God and Jesus. Rubel Shelly tells of being part of a project in which thousands of dollars were spent trying to create a face for Jesus that would be used in literature.[iv] To test the proposed faces, they used a group of children. Each proposed face for Jesus was shown to the children. If the children responded positively to the face, they would keep the face. If the children responded negatively to the face, they would go back to the drawing board. Shelly says that the early proposed faces for Jesus were all rejected. The children kept saying Jesus looked stern and mad. The group kept working until they designed a warm and friendly face. They knew they got it right when they showed it to the children and one little girl walked over, smiled at the picture, and kissed it.
This deep and genuinely expressive joy begins with our vision of God or Jesus. If the Jesus we see in our mind is stern and mad, we will likely be stern and mad followers. But if the Jesus we see in our mind is warm and friendly, we’ll be more likely to experience and express joy in our lives.
Calhoun points to the wonderful picture of God in Zeph. 3:17: “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Can you picture this God? This is a God who rejoices over you with gladness. This is a God who exults over you with loud singing. The more we envision God in this way, the more we will experience and express the same kind of joy.
John Ortberg urges us to re-imagine Genesis 1 if God approached life as we so often do:[v] “In the beginning it was nine o’clock, so God had to go to work. He filled out a requisition to separate light from darkness. He considered making stars to beautify the night, and planets to fill the skies, but thought it sounded like too much work; and besides, thought God, ‘That’s not my job.’ So he decided to knock off early and call it a day. And he looked at what he had done and he said, ‘It’ll have to do.’ On the second day God separated the waters from the dry land. And he made all the dry land flat, plain, and functional, so that—behold—the whole earth looked like Idaho. He thought about making mountains and valleys and glaciers and jungles and forests, but he decided it wouldn’t be worth the effort. And God looked at what he had done that day and said, ‘It’ll have to do.’ And God made a pigeon to fly in the air, and a carp to swim on the waters, and a cat to creep upon dry ground. And God thought about making millions of other species of all sizes and shapes and colors, but he couldn’t drum up any enthusiasm for any other animals—in fact, he wasn’t too crazy about the cat. Besides, it was almost time for the Late Show. So God looked at all he had done, and God said, ‘It’ll have to do.’ And at the end of the week, God was seriously burned out. So he breathed a big sigh of relief and said, ‘Thank Me, it’s Friday.’” If that’s the kind of God we envision, our joy will certainly be no greater than his. But the truth is that God is a very different kind of God. Genesis 1 presents a God filled with joy, delight, and enthusiasm as he creates and shapes and declares each creation “Good.” The more we envision this kind of God, the more his joy becomes ours.
But there’s more to experiencing and expressing this abundant joy than just changing our view of God and Jesus. We also have to partner with God and Jesus and the Spirit through intentional practices nurture joy in our lives. Celebration is one of those intentional practices.
Calhoun defines Celebration in this way: “Celebration is a way of engaging in actions that orient the spirit toward worship, praise and thanksgiving.” Celebration stands for specific actions and habits that will, over time, orient our heart so that it is more consistently pointed towards worship, praise, and thanksgiving.
Elsewhere Calhoun writes that Celebration is us taking “joyful, passionate pleasure in God and the radically glorious nature of God’s people, Word, world and purposes.” Celebration consists of intentional practices that lead us to joyful and passionate pleasure. Celebration is not merely about feeling warm and fuzzy inside. It’s about learning to experience passionate pleasure in God’s people, or in God’s Word, or in God’s world, or in God’s purposes.
Calhoun writes that Celebration primarily takes this form: “Identifying and pursuing those things that bring the heart deep gladness and reveling in them before the Lord.” Celebration is more than just a calm “thank you.” It is more than a mere sigh of content. Calhoun says Celebration is learning to revel before God. Celebration involves deep heart gladness. She suggests that it is doing what David did as the ark was brought to Jerusalem: “So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. 13And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. 14And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 15So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn… 20And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, ‘How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!’ 21And David said to Michal, ‘It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will make merry before the LORD. 22I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.’” (2 Sam. 6:12-22 ESV). Celebration is learning to “dance before the LORD with all our might.” It is learning, in small ways or big ways, to fully and completely rejoice. It is learning once again to “make merry” before God.
Celebration is learning to do in our walk with God what soccer players do so well on the soccer field. If you have ever watched much professional soccer, one common event is the way in which players celebrate enthusiastically after a scoring goal. They don’t hold back. They do flips. They do dances. They cannot seem to contain their happiness. Celebration is learning to do that very thing in our relationship with God.
And while this discipline may not necessarily be unheard of, it is one which we probably don’t practice often, at least not with intention. This is one of those disciplines we know we ought to practice but often do not practice.
How then do we practice Celebration? Calhoun provides the following suggestions (some of these fall under her similar discussion of Gratitude and Worship):
- Memorize a verse of praise and repeat it through the day.
- Write a song or poem celebrating God.
- Go all-out in your celebration of holy days such as Easter and Christmas.
- Keep a gratitude journal.
- Express gratitude to others regularly.
- Receive things as gifts rather than as entitlements.
- End every day by saying “thank you” to God for at least one thing.
- Write a letter of thanks to someone who has touched your life.
- Spend time this week in something that brings joy: worship, time with friends, giving and receiving presents, etc.
Some of us may not yet be ready to do flips and cartwheels in worship. We may not yet be ready to, as the psalmist did, shout God songs at the top of our lungs. Celebration is about taking baby steps in those directions. It’s about intentionally learning to rejoice in small ways so that eventually we learn to rejoice in big ways.
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[i] Philip D. Kenneson Life on the Vine (IVP, 1999), 62-65; Rubel Shelly In Step With the Spirit (20th Century Christian, 1987), 58-60.
[ii] John Ortberg, Dangers, Toils & Snares: Resisting the Hidden Temptations of Ministry (Multnomah, 1994), 99-100.
[iii] John Ortberg The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Zondervan, 1997), 68.
[iv] Shelly, 57.
[v] Ortberg, The Life, 66.
