Biography
The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Reaves has been a guest on 30 Good Minutes every year since 1989. He’s ordained in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and serves as Vice President of Ministries for Adventist Health System in Orlando, Florida. Ben is the former president of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, and also served as General Field Secretary for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Joy. . . That Lasts!" 
The joy that lasts. Is there really such a thing? It sounds like it may well be a sermon or book title but a life experience? Joy that lasts?

Someone could be, and probably is thinking, you must be kidding! Let’s be for real. Yes, we all agree there are moments of joy. We’ve seen it: video clips of joyous families welcoming loved ones home from the war in Iraq; the unrestrained demonstrations of ecstatic joy in the Olympics over winning the gold medal; the eruption of laughter and tears mingled in an explosion of joy over winning the crown of Miss America; or surely, the memorable joy of the 276 audience members receiving free cars from Oprah. Sure, joy on special, rare occasions perhaps, but is there such a thing as joy that lasts?

Well, any bookstore reminds me there is: The Joy of Cooking, The Joy of Living, The Joy of Sex, The Joy of Parenthood, The Joy of Painting, The Joy of..., The Joy of.... And the more titles, the more questions arise. What is joy? Does it come from something you have, or something you do? Is it a pursuit or a paradox, or worse, an illusion? Is it fleeting or permanent? What are the identifying characteristics of the joy that lasts?

In his book Talking to Ducks, James A. Kitchens explains there are two major types of joy: internal joy and external joy. Internal joy comes from within, but external joy comes and goes with whatever is happening in our environment. It is extrinsic because it arises from the outside. When the circumstances change in one direction, joy comes. When fortune reverses, joy leaves.

Well, let’s settle it. The first characteristic of the joy that lasts is this: it is not externally dependent.

Now, that goes against the Madison Avenue mantra which has often disappointed and deceived us with its hyped-up promises of joy and happiness. This party, this cruise, this home, this car, this accomplishment, this relationship, will bring you the happiness you crave and deserve. But the painful truth of experience is, if it comes, it's only a fleeting moment at best, and life returns to its humdrum reality. As one writer cynically put it, “It’s like the good meal given to an inmate on death row. These are only momentary diversions in the grim march toward death.”

In a more positive note, the Random House dictionary defines joy as “the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; a state of happiness.” While the dictionary is helpful, the fact is, as Adrian Rogers clarifies, happiness is not joy. Happiness depends upon what happens, and therefore we call it “happiness.” Happiness comes from outside circumstances. Joy comes from within. If you put your trust in happiness, then you are going to be a victim of circumstances, because your happenstance will change. While happiness meets surface needs, joy meets your deepest needs.

So, first of all, the joy that lasts is not externally dependent. In addition, the joy that lasts is not dependent on the absence of sorrow and pain.

That is why Habakkuk 3:17-19 speaks of joy in a strange and paradoxical manner: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,” he goes on to say, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”

Joy that lasts is not a fantasy focus that is out of touch with reality. This joy is not mere giddy happiness but something deeper and richer. It is not ignorant of tragedy. It is grounded in a profound awareness of both the joys and sorrows of life.

So in Phillipians, where Paul talks a lot about “joy” and rejoicing, its more than the “I’ve got a wonderful feeling, everything is going my way” kind of joy. Rather, as Stuart Briscoe writes, “A remarkable joy that lasted—that he could experience even in prison when things were going wrong.” Karl Barth, the great theologian, probed deeply into human experience when he said, “Joy in this world is always in spite of something.” It is, as he put it, a “defiant nevertheless.”

To me, that is more than joy because of good times. It’s joy in the face of, or joy in spite of the irritation, exasperation, frustration, and aggravation of daily living. It is the kind of joy Henri Nouwen concludes, “That does not separate happy days from sad days, successful moments from moments of failure. It is a divine gift that does not leave us during illness, grief, oppression, or persecution. It does not depend on the circumstances of our lives, or even on our momentary feelings.” The joy that lasts, that is not externally dependent, that is not dependent on the absence of sorrow and pain, the joy that lasts is rooted, grounded, cemented in the experience with God.

In the New Testament there are three categories of word groups translated “joy” or “rejoice.” One is describing the expression of shouts, singing, clapping hands, lifting up praise to God. The second word group identifies outward expression and the inner feeling of merriment and cheer. The third word group, used a total of one hundred forty times in the New Testament, is the hallmark of the Christian. Paul rarely uses words from the second and never uses words from the first. The third is his word group. Joy that is not primarily dependent on health, wealth, comfort, or general well-being, but on God.

So when Paul in Phillipians—his epistle of joy written while awaiting death in prison—talked of joy, he was describing joy that was more than a mood or emotion or expression. More than a state or feeling of happiness. Although it includes these, joy is a world view, a perception of God reality that generates hope and endurance in affliction and temptation or ease and prosperity, because joy enables one to see beyond any particular event—good or bad—to the sovereign Lord who stands above all and ultimately has control over all. So the Bible does not say to rejoice in circumstances; the Bible says, "Rejoice in the Lord." And since God never changes, the Bible says, "Rejoice evermore." Joy that lasts is not externally dependent is not dependent on the absence of pain and sorrow. Joy that lasts is rooted and grounded in the God who is eternal.

How can I possess or be possessed by that joy that lasts? Vance Havner simply unpacks it this way in John 20:20: “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.” Havner points out they were glad when they saw, not each other, nor their circumstances, but the Lord. You can’t reach the “then they were glad,” until you first come to the “when they saw the Lord.” Joy that lasts is the joy of the Lord.

That’s what the little girl said, reciting John 3:16: “Whosoever believeth should not perish but have internal life.” That’s what I learned as a child: If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart. Then your testimony will be: “I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Down in my heart to stay.” Joy that lasts!

Interview with Benjamin Reaves
Interviewed by Lydia Talbot

Lydia Talbot: Ben, your magnificent message on joy. You say you learned that kind of joy, cemented in God, as a child. Who were your teachers?

Benjamin Reaves: My parents. Mother and father exhibited it in spite of whatever circumstances might have developed. They had that joy that was grounded in their relationship with God.

Talbot: How have you and your wonderful wife, Jean, passed that kind of joy on to your children and grandchildren?

Reaves: She has done it by magnificent living. I have tried to do so by trying to keep up with her, in spite of physical challenges that we might experience, and that we understand circumstances don’t determine the joy.

Talbot: You can tell that kind of joy was part of your healing during the quadruple by-pass that you had a few years ago.

Reaves: That’s correct.

Talbot: And you are here today! Thank you.