by Ruby in India
Joy just got harder
On Sunday I gave a talk at church about cultivating joy in the face of the harsh realities of our world. I told the story of Zeenat*, a teenager we’ve been helping through treatment for drug-resistant disseminated TB. On Tuesday I heard from her brother that she had taken a turn for the worse. On Wednesday she died.
Suddenly, finding joy got harder.
Suffering and Hardship
There is a great deal of suffering and hardship in the world, both “out there” in far away places, and “right here” wherever we are, in our own lives. Personally, I’m not interested in having joy that only works when everything is fine, since that’s only going to work by ignoring the world to pretend that everything is OK. I am searching for joy that surfaces even in the face of suffering.
Things to be grumpy about
At church we brainstormed about all the things in life that make joy seem difficult, or maybe even inappropriate. It didn’t take long to make quite a long list of big and small complaints about the world:
Gaza, Ukraine, Somalia, dysfunctional health systems, abuse of power, other forms of abuse, dishonesty, injustice, highly privileged minority, … it was a wide-ranging list.
It’s natural to be angry or despondent about the world. If we bring God into the picture, we might move to lament – pouring out our anger and despondency on the One who loves the world most.
Beyond lament, how can our lives speak hope and joy in this world of chaos and pain? What does the gospel of Jesus offer to suffering people, including ourselves? Do we have to sweep reality under the carpet to have joy?
Zeenat’s life
At 17, Zeenat had plenty to be grumpy about, and actually she was pretty grumpy at times.
When she was about eight, her parents split up. She and her younger brother Aman* were taken out of school and shunted between relatives. As young teenagers they both got jobs, rented their own room, and lived independently … until their Dad moved in with them!
By 2024, Zeenat was 16 and enjoying her job, and spending her earnings on eating out with friends and wearing the latest fashion.
Then she got sick. She got sicker and sicker. It was tuberculosis (TB), and even after starting the medicines she still got sicker and sicker, thinner and thinner. It turned out she had drug resistant TB, and it was in her lymph nodes, brain, lungs and stomach. She needed brain surgery, and became too weak to stand or walk, and vomited so much she kept losing weight.
For the past year or so, Aman does all the cooking and cleaning, as well as feeding and caring for Zeenat. We started supporting them in February. Over the past couple of months Zeenat is vomiting much less, and has started to gain weight – almost up to 25kg!
Zeenat’s life – her parents’ failure to care for her, the tragedy of her illness – I find it very sad.
My challenge
How can I hold onto hope and find joy? How can I offer these to others?
Visiting Zeenat, encouraging her, helping Aman get her to doctor visits and manage her myriad medicines – that has been a joy for me. Just knowing Ahad is a joy – who else knows a 16 year old who does all the housework, is also a full-time carer, and manages a complex regimen of medicines, all with scant insecure income and while being illiterate!
My mood is up and down as I ride the roller-coaster with Aman and Zeenat – long days at the hospital, more vomiting, some days of better health and apparent progress, another surgery needed, hesitant weight gain, less vomiting, and altered mental states due to the treatment and the disease.
Yet what a joy to be deeply connected and involved in the lives of these two teenagers.
There are many “Zeenats” in this world. We meet them quite often where we live in India, so that our picture of the world is quite accented by suffering. How can I live and speak a gospel of joy here? A year or so back, searching for joy in this desert of suffering, I turned to the Bible and read most of its passages about joy, looking for answers.
Joy in the Bible
After a lot of reading and pondering, and joining the dots between different claims and stories, there were three main things that stood out to me.
Joy is from God
First, joy is from God. Nearly always the source of joy is God – either God is the reason for joy, or God gives us reasons for joy. The Psalms are full of joy and rejoicing, not only for God’s action in our lives such as healing, restoring, and rescuing from enemies, but also simply for God’s presence:
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalms 16:11
I discovered that seeking and giving joy in life is not a peripheral nicety, but actually a key characteristic of God’s kingdom coming.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
Romans 14:17
Joy in community
Second, joy is associated with being part of the faith community. Often we mine Paul’s letters for their theological and pastoral wisdom, and fail to notice the joy he has in the network of believers. Not that they were perfect or even model Christians – he was usually writing to try to sort out problems. Yet there is joy, partly in his own relationship with different people, and partly in watching others grow in maturity and express the gospel in their lives. For example:
For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God
1 Thes 3:9
The old testament tells the wild and woolly story of Israel attempting to be God’s people, and there is plenty of sin and trouble, treachery and violence within the community of Israel. Yet there are also moments of great joy. I was particularly struck by the story of the returned exiles, re-discovering God’s word and the laws and festivals and rituals explained therein. Day-long reading of scripture and week-long festivals tend to wear a bit thin on me, but the returned exiles celebrated them together with great joy:
And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Nehemiah 8:12
Joy in bad circumstances
Finally, joy regularly happens in the context of bad circumstances. It may be in the midst of the difficult circumstances (like Paul writing his letters from prison), or once they are over (like the returned exiles). Either way, joy is not fairy floss with no substance in the real world – just ask James or Jesus himself.
Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Jas 1:2
… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:1-2
What can I do?
I think finding joy in the context of pain is not easy or automatic. I also think the first two points are the key to us finding greater joy. Look to God, and to our community of faith. Seek God’s presence, invest in the lives of your fellow journeyers. We are never alone in the pain we endure, if only we dare allow God and others into our lives.
Back to today’s personal challenge: yesterday Zeenat died. Today I will arrive back in town there, probably I will visit Aman tomorrow. It’s the time for mourning, not platitudes and jokes. Yet there is a strange joy to be present in grief, to at least offer the comfort of not being alone, and of listening to the story.
Lord Jesus, help me be present to Zeenat’s family.
Lord Jesus have mercy on Zeenat, now free from her too-frail body.
*Names changed for privacy
(Bible passages from ESV, copied from biblehub.com)
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