Sunday: The Mastery of Sadness and Gloom
WEEK 32
SUNDAY
THE MASTERY OF SADNESS AND GLOOM
Psalm 63:5-7
We come now to note another mastery in the Acts: the mastery of sadness and gloom. There is an amazing joy in the pages of the Acts. It was a joy that came not by isolation from sorrow and trouble but by insulation. In the midst of a world that was breaking down and hence filled with sadness and gloom, these people had an amazing joy.
Going through a swamp that had a green, slimy mold upon it, a man saw a patch that was clear and fresh. Upon investigation he found that down beneath that spot was a bubbling spring, which pushed back the green slime. That is what happened in the Acts. They found a deep, bubbling spring of joy within themselves; and they pushed back the surrounding slime of sadness and gloom and showed a clear spot in history of an amazingly clear and crystal joy.
The reason for this astonishing joy was simple: their inner lives had been cleared of conflicts, resentments, fears, self-preoccupations, and guilt. These are all killjoys. When you get rid of them, joy spontaneously springs up within. You don’t have to try to have a good time; you just have one—have one constitutionally.
Many people have to invent newer and newer ways to have a good time. It is a symptom of an irrepressible sadness down underneath.
Fully surrendered Christians don’t try to have a good time; we just have one. Biblical scholar J. Rendel Harris (1852–1941) says, “Joy is the strength of the people of God; it is their characteristic mark.”* If there is no real joy, there is no real Christianity. For Christianity is life set to music. It is doing everything for fun. And you do everything for nothing. You love God for nothing; you love others for nothing. You serve God—for nothing. Peter said to Jesus, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you; what will we have?” (Matt 19:27). That showed how pre-Acts and sub-Acts his faith was. He was looking for a reward, something added to what he had. But the reward was there—Jesus! After the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples didn’t talk of a reward; they had it within.
O Divine Spirit, having you within, what lack I? Nothing—nothing in heaven or on earth. For heaven can only be a prolongation and intensification of This. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I will be as happy as I am holy, as glad as I am good, as peaceful as I am pure.
* No published source was found for this quotation.