No Jack-in-the-Box Joy

What is Irrepressible Joy anyway? 

You know what a Jack-in-the-Box is, right—that clown faced character attached to a spring in the bottom of his box?  You stuff him in his box, slam the lid down, and when you turn the crank on the side of the box, he pops back out again.  Jack may seem irrepressible when a child’s undying interest in this toy starts to unnerve us, but real irrepressible joy is no Jack-in-the-Box joy!

You probably have noticed that Jack never gets any bigger; he’s still the same quantity he ever was.  He always fits back in the box.  He simply pops up, unchanged, every once in a while, under just the right circumstances.  He won’t even come out unless you turn the crank.  He’s not really irrepressible at all.

Real irrepressible joy can’t be contained or restrained.  You can give it away, but it keeps on coming.  That’s because, unlike Jack, irrepressible joy has an unlimited, inexhaustible source.

So what’s going on when we feel more like all we have is Jack-in the-Box joy—limited quantity and only experienced in the perfect circumstances?  We have to keep calling out the same old reserve stock from the warehouse and then put it away ‘til the next time the conditions are right.

The problem is that we’ve slowed or cut off communication with the supplier.  Eventually, our supply is exhausted.

The only solution is to get connected to the source of joy and never let go.  Jesus said, “ I am the true vine. . . .Abide in me. . .As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. . . .If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love. . . These things I have spoken to you, that. . .your joy may be made full.”  (see John 15:1-11)

More to come. . .

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