Has someone led you to think that suffering and joy cannot coexist, that you could never be truly happy while going through something hard?
Maybe no one has actually said that to you, but your whole life has taught you that everyone suffers, that a precious few are sometimes happy — but that no one could possibly be happy in the midst of suffering. How could that even be? Cancer and joy? Betrayal and joy? Death and joy? In your imagination, it would be like saying someone can swim up Mount Everest or hike the Pacific Ocean. Joy in suffering breaks the definitions you’ve developed for both words.
That’s how I used to think. I thought the promise of Christianity was suffering and then happiness — in heaven. Deny yourself, pick up your cross, suffer for now, and then one day God will take you home and make you happy. To be sure, God will make all those who believe wondrously, infinitely happy in the new heavens and new earth: “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
But for those who know Jesus, happiness isn’t only a future hope; it’s a now and abiding reality — even in suffering.
Count It All Joy
Our mission statement at Desiring God says that we exist “to move people to live for the glory of God by helping them be satisfied in God above all else, especially in their suffering . . .” The profound possibility of joy in suffering has its roots all over the God-breathed testimony of Scripture.
The apostle Paul, for instance, was imprisoned over and over, beaten with rods, slandered by his enemies, flogged with lashes five times, stoned almost to death, often deprived of food, water, shelter, and sleep — “in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers” (2 Corinthians 11:26) — and yet he could be found always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6:10). The chief of prisoners could write from the loneliness, injustice, and distress of his cell, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).
And the chief of prisoners isn’t the only one. King David wrote from the throes of betrayal, while he was being slandered and hunted, “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (Psalm 4:7). The apostle James had found that same treasure: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when” — when what? — “you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). Rejoice not after but in, during, through the trials. And, of course, the Chief of Sufferers led them all when he endured the worst, most painful darkness imaginable “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2).
What It Means to Be Blessed
Our aim to help sufferers stay satisfied is rooted in Scripture, but it’s also rooted in the God-wrought testimony of real suffering saints.
You probably know some Christians who have no business being as happy as they are. Such people have been through more pain than most, and yet with more joy than most. They have tasted the goodness of God in the valley like they never tasted it on the mountain — and their joy shines brighter there in the darkness than ever before. God gets even more glory because it is well with them when nothing is well with them.
I could name a number of these delightful, beautiful aliens — people of whom this world is not worthy — but I’ll name just one. Vaneetha has suffered countless childhood surgeries, an unwanted divorce, the sudden loss of a child, and now a debilitating condition that causes chronic pain and severely limits her movement. And yet she might be the happiest soul I’ve ever met.
How could that be? How could she be? She tells us how:
Scripture shows that blessing is anything God gives that makes us fully satisfied in him. Anything that draws us closer to Jesus. Anything that helps us relinquish the temporal and hold on more tightly to the eternal. And often it is the struggles and trials, the aching disappointments and the unfulfilled longings, that best enable us to do that.
Vaneetha is living, breathing, singing proof that true joy is the strongest, most durable force in the universe. Christian Hedonism urges us toward the unblushing pursuit of pleasure in God for the glory of God. We believe God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. We don’t surrender happiness when we become Christians, and we don’t push pause for trials. No, the pursuit of real happiness begins when we follow Jesus, and it never, ever ends, not even in suffering.
Painful and Profoundly Happy
In the fall of 2012, as John Piper prepared to step down from being a pastor after 33 years, he gave one last sermon series. He preached ten sermons spread out over four months, focusing on the ten defining truths he wanted to leave with the church he so loved. The last was both intentional and memorable (I was in the pew that morning): “Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing,” on 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:13. He said,
What the world needs from the church is our indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of suffering and sorrow.
And this note has been there from the beginning. In the book Desiring God, Pastor John devotes an entire chapter to “Suffering: The Sacrifice of Christian Hedonism.” He writes,
The Calvary road with Jesus is not a joyless road. It is a painful one, but it is a profoundly happy one. When we choose the fleeting pleasures of comfort and security over the sacrifices and sufferings of missions and evangelism and ministry and love, we choose against joy. . . . In the pursuit of joy through suffering, we magnify the all-satisfying worth of the Source of our joy. God himself shines as the brightness at the end of our tunnel of pain. (287–88)
In the days and weeks to come, we’re publishing eight articles under the theme “Desiring God in the Dark.” We want you to see, through Scripture, that the joy Jesus brings is sturdy enough for the trials you face. And we want you to see that what the world needs from the church is our indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of suffering and sorrow.