A post from the Jesus Collective Partner

Contribution by Cecil Ramos (missionary with Multiply in Phan Thong, Thailand).


Joy has a name

So what does Joy mean to me? Such a fantastic question and really, it’s a deep concept for me to ponder as I actually think about what joy means, especially in the person of Jesus Christ. I want to go back to being a kid. I remember having a lot of fun riding my bike with friends in the neighborhood going blocks and blocks away. Of course this was the middle to late 80’s and I recognize times were different then but still, it was the little things that brought joy. I remember going to family get-togethers and having my aunts and uncles and cousins chatting, recounting and laughing, about the same story over and over again. What I appreciate about those moments is that I would laugh so hard my stomach would hurt. I remember growing up and, even though my parents divorced when I was about 5 years old and we moved from Los Angeles to Bakersfield CA, I still remember a particular summer that we weren’t doing much. I was just feeling bored to be honest. My mom didn’t have a lot of money and it was very hot in Bakersfield. I remember her saying, ​“Cecil pack up, you and your sister and me are going to a hotel for a few nights”. We just went to a hotel in town. It was actually a Holiday Inn Express but they had a swimming pool and it was really special. It was somewhat of a staycation but my mom made it special. We had some cheeseburgers. We had some Subway sandwiches. And just playing in the pool, especially as hot as it was in Bakersfield, CA, that was a little piece of heaven and that truly brought me joy.

Psalm 16 starts by saying:

I say to the Lord, ​“You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”

I say of the holy people who are in the land,
​“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”

Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful[b] one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:2 – 11)

I think a lot of times in our culture we mistake joy for temporary happiness or a fleeting sense of delight. It felt like pursuing that is like chasing the wind. I still remember my life before I completely surrendered it to Jesus; I felt like I was chasing the approval of others and was really trying to find myself, especially in my teenage years. If the circumstances were just right then I feel like I might have been happy, but it didn’t last, not long anyways. I remember desperately wanting peace and joy. In the summer of 2002, (crazy to say twenty-two years ago), I went to the front of this Mennonite Brethren church and completely gave my life to Christ. I said, ​“This is it, my life is yours”. I just remember from that day until now, for twenty-two years, I have felt this deep sense of joy and peace in my heart and no matter what I have gone through, which of course in following Jesus, being involved in ministry, trying to provide for a family, have been challenges and dark days. But at the end of the day, I feel like the peace and joy that I find in Christ has still rested upon me where I can just be sitting down at a coffee shop, in my house, at some training conference, or church service here in Southeast Asia where I perhaps I don’t understand a lot of what is going on, and I can sit back and just have this deep sense of joy and even satisfaction that the Lord is working in my midst and around me. Jesus Christ himself says that it is better to give than receive and, in fact, the apostle Paul quotes him in the Acts 20:35, he tells them, ​“Remember the words of the Lord, ​‘It is better to give than to receive’”. 

I will finish with this: I believe times in my life that I have had the deepest joy have not been when I have received things or acquired or obtained things, but rather when I have given: given of myself; given of my time; given of my energy; given of my resources. I feel like in those moments I am experiencing the fullness of joy that Jesus is talking about. Jesus Christ knows what he’s talking about when he says, ​“It is better to give than to receive” and I’ve experienced that. I pray that the Lord will continue to pour into my heart and soul and that, whatever I have, I will hold it with open hands and just say ​“Lord, you put in and you take out as you see fit.” In his presence there is fullness of joy. I could say that as a twenty-one year old kid when I first gave my life to Jesus. I can say that now as a forty-two year old man. I pray that I can say that as a sixty-two year old grandfather and perhaps as an eighty-two year old man that is going to face his maker soon. That, no matter what is going on in life, in his presence there is fullness of joy.