Choose it

A month ago I told you about a morning of depression that followed an evening of joy, and how I went to the psalms for succor. That was a good start. But even that does not go far enough. Psalm 42 cannot help but make you feel good while you're reading it because, after all, it is the Word of God, and in the moment that you are filling your mind with it you are aligned with truth and your soul is at home.

But then you have to make dinner or run to The Home Depot and your nice feeling may fade---just like Saul's relief failed him when David stopped strumming his harp.

This morning I was taking my walk, and depression was nibbling at my heels and I decided that I must do something proactive. I must choose joy! Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, yes, but it is also a command: "Rejoice in the Lord" (Philippians 3:1), says Paul. And he is so earnest that you not take his exhortation lightly that he keeps repeating it until you "get" it: "To say the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you." Just for good measure, he says it again a chapter later: "Again I say: rejoice" (4:4).

Why is it "safe" for us that he repeat the exhortation to rejoice? Because we are prone to hear the words and smile and say, "What a lovely thought," and then walk away and forget. Or we are likely to misunderstand him to mean that joy is an ideal on which we must set our sights and on which we will attain in heaven. No. Paul means: Stop right now. Don't keep letting yourself roll over to every wind of mood and hormone and worry about next Tuesday. CHOOSE JOY. Say to the Lord, "I will rejoice in you." And then do it all day long.

Make it, as Eugene Peterson wrote, "a long obedience in the same direction."

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.