Joy is Thursday-Sunday. That’s what I read on the billboard as I walked through the train station for my ride home tonight.
Joy is Front Row Seats. Successive billboards sponsored by BMW as part of their “Joy” campaign lined the path to my train, advertising their golf tournament at Cog Hill.
It begs an important question: What is joy?
I’ve never had front row seats at a major golf event. I’m guessing it would be a rather unforgettable experience! Beautiful setting…. Surrounded by people who love the game of golf…. Watching the best players in the world, demonstrating their expert skills.
It would be amazing.
But is that joy?
James 1:2 has been called by many to be one of the most outrageous statements in the Bible: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
It could also be voted for least likely to show up on a billboard!
Trials? Joy?
I like Pastor James MacDonald’s definition of joy: The supernatural delight in the Person, purposes, and people of God.
Joy isn’t happiness or thrills. It’s deeper. In fact, it can’t be self-manufactured. It’s a supernatural blessing that cannot be matched by strapping myself into the cockpit of the most luxurious BMW.
Hey, if you can afford the tickets to Cog Hill or a BMW ride to get there, go for it. But that sort of “joy” will not sustain us through the good times and the bad.
Christ alone owns the right to that marketing campaign.
For more from James MacDonald on joy, check out this blog post.
