The Joy of Getting it Right

So… You’re doing something you know honors God. Maybe it’s going well; maybe it’s not. However exciting starting out was, you’re wondering Where’s the joy? Let’s look at three questions to ask yourself.

Even David didn’t always get it right, and I’m not just talking about Bathsheba

A recent Listen When He Speaks reading was 1 Chronicles 15. I’m sure there were some, Oh my word, that’s a lot of those ridiculous impossible names… There’s also something important I learned about joy in the Lord. And all those names show us the profound difference between how David and the people first approached moving the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, recorded in 1 Chronicles 13, and how David led them to later.

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Woo-hoo! Let’s do this!

David was finally king. He conquered Jerusalem and made it his royal city. Things were going really well, and he thought it was time to restore the Ark of the Covenant from the neglect it suffered under the reign of Saul. That would please God, right? It would honor Him to bring the symbol of His covenant with the people, and the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments it contained, to the nation’s center of power.

He asked the people, and everyone agreed it was a good idea, that it was the right thing to do. And they were excited. They made a new cart for oxen to pull it, and they headed toward Jerusalem with music and celebration. It was a big party.

Until it wasn’t.

Uzza saw the Ark start to slip off the cart, and he did what any of us would do. He reached out to steady it. Everyone partying along the way with him would have probably thought it was a good idea, too. But God didn’t. He was angered by Uzza’s natural act; he struck him dead.

Whoa, harsh.

David was angry. At what God did. And he was afraid. Of God.

Maybe having the Ark in Jerusalem wasn’t such a good idea. They dropped it off at Obed-Edom’s house for three months, and things went really well for him while it was there.

Hmm… Maybe it’s better to follow the instructions

It had been a long time since God gave Moses instructions for the building of the Tabernacle and how the holy things it housed should be cared for. But they were pretty specific, and how His expectations for the reverence the ark deserved hadn’t changed.

One of the tribes, or families, had been set aside to serve God. Only the descendants of Levi were meant to carry the Ark. No one, no one, was to touch it.

What was the Ark of the Covenant?

The Ark was a box. The most important box ever. It was made of acacia wood covered with gold. It held the Ten Commandments, and symbolized God’s covenant with His people. It was the most sacred object, and was only approached in the inner Most Holy Place once a year, when the high priest sprinkled blood on its top, called the atonement cover, to atone for all Israel’s sins. The cover itself had two golden cherubim, a type of angel, facing each other from each end, with their wings spread over it. It was crafted by Bezalel, a skilled artisan gifted by God with the ability to create beautiful, well-crafted things of various types.

Uzza was not the first do die for being presumptuous with the Ark.

Because that’s what it was, wasn’t it? You could argue that he didn’t have time to think about whether or not he should touch the Ark, even to save it from falling, that it was just a reflex.

But he shouldn’t have been there to catch it in the first place.

It’s like I tell my kids, It’s not really an accident if it happens while you’re doing something you know you’re not supposed to be doing.

An ox cart was not how God commanded the Ark be transported. No one involved in the moving the Ark that day was ritually pure. It may sound like mumbo-jumbo and unnecessary steps to prove they were good enough, but there was purpose in every instruction God gave for approaching Him. Moving the Ark to Jerusalem may have been a good thing, but David and the Israelites didn’t take the time to consider how to do it the right way. At that moment, David was more interested in what his people had to say than what God had already said.

Even our most trusted spiritual leaders can get it wrong. Ground your faith in God, not man.

Even our most trusted spiritual leaders can get it wrong. Ground your faith in God, not man. Click To Tweet

Sometimes we’re like kids throwing a party when their parents are out of town. Except when we throw the rules out the window, we’re not afraid we’ll get caught, we presume God is okay with what we choose to do because it makes us feel good.

David, a man after God’s own heart, didn’t always get it right, but He always came back to God’s will.

Now David built houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said, “No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to Him forever.” And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place which he had prepared for it.

1 Chronicles 15:1-3, NASB

David got all the right people together, and had them purify, or consecrate themselves. Everyone was assigned their rightful jobs after David said:

Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.

1 Chronicles 15:13, NASB

Moving the Ark was a serious thing, and David and the people were taking it seriously.

The joy they experienced in getting the ark to Jerusalem was pure. The celebration was holy. Emotion was not the focus; worship was.

Some questions to consider if you’re not experiencing joy in your calling

Am I doing it God’s way, or my way?

There are many things the Bible doesn’t give specific instructions for. Especially under the New Covenant, not to mention in an age with so many things people in Bible times would have had no concept of. But that doesn’t mean we don’t look for guiding principles in Scripture. It does mean we approach our work for God humbly. Sometimes, the old way is the best way, at least for now; at other times, we need to scrap the way things have been done and start something that seems completely new. Sometimes there’s a middle approach. Whatever God has in mind, don’t get so caught up in your own ideas that you miss the direction He’s trying to give you, in obvious or subtle ways.

Am I praising God, or looking for an emotion?

David and the Israelites set out to do a good thing. You could say their heart was in the right place. But it also wasn’t. They had an idea of what would please God, and it was true, but they didn’t take time to consider how to go about it in the way that best honored God. They were caught up in the excitement of a new king and military victories. But instead of turning their hearts all the way to God and prioritizing His honor, they got distracted by His blessings that felt good. They embraced the glory of their heritage as God’s chosen people, but not the gravity and responsibility of those set apart for Him.

As David’s celebration in 1 Chronicles 15 shows, it’s not wrong to celebrate, and worship loudly and exuberantly, but true worship of any time requires God as the focus. There is no guarantee that following His will will make you feel like whooping and hollering. In fact, many times, it won’t. But you can still have joy.

Is my service worship?

What God calls us to isn’t always easy. In fact, it can seem downright impossible. Some would say the things we see as impossible are the best type of call, because we go in knowing we can’t do it in our own strength. But the seemingly little things are important, too. Smiling at someone and seeing it brighten their face feels good, and for some of us it’s just natural. Whether God’s will is easy or difficult, it’s always in this moment we live it. Is my focus pleasing myself, others, or God?

There’s a reason we’re told to pray without ceasing. We need to stay in communication with God, speaking and listening, to evaluate our thoughts and actions, and seek His will. When we realize our mind and heart are wandering, we can turn back, as David did.

Taking my faith back from the idol of emotion

When you struggle with a mood disorder like bipolar disorder, it’s easy to get caught up in emotion both ways, up and down. The down that steals your desire to praise, as it steals your ability to see good. Or the up that finds all sorts of things exciting, whether they’re good or accurate, or not. It’s easy to let that happen even when you don’t struggle with a mood disorder! The wonderful truth is, God is bigger than our emotions. His grace is bigger than our failures. Bigger than our brokenness.

The longer we run on our own strength, or chase after what makes us feel happy, the longer until we admit we’re getting it wrong and need God. We need His grace, His love, His peace, His joy. Mostly we need Him.

Resting in God doesn’t mean we’ll never have bad days. It doesn’t mean we’ll be healed from mental illness. It does mean we can live victoriously, with joy, in and through it all.