One Who Rejoices

She is our first born grandchild.  She is beautiful, loving, full of energy, loves to read, loves to sing and dance and play, loves her mom and dad, loves her little brother, can't wait for her little sister to be born... She is Kyah Braun.  Her first name is derived from a Latin word (with some slight spelling changes).  Kyah means "one who rejoices."  I love this little girl and I love her name.  Since her birth 5 years ago, we have been rejoicing every day.

When I think of Kyah, I think of Paul's words in Philippians 4 - "Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again - rejoice!"  At first when I hear that verse, I think, "That sounds wonderful - to go through life rejoicing.  But how is that possible?  Some days are tough.  Bad things happen in this world - loss of a job, betrayal of a friend, divorce, sickness, death... How can you rejoice always?"

But such thoughts confuse two different things - joy and happiness.  Happiness is related to circumstances.  Whether you are happy or not is often at the mercy of whether today is a good day or a bad day, whether good things or bad things are happening to you.  Who in the world can be happy that a loved one is sick, or a that you have lost your job? 

No those things don't make you happy, but they also can not or at least need not rob you of joy.  Joy or rejoicing is not at the mercy of circumstances. Rejoicing is the fruit of your relationship with God.  Rejoicing flows from the fact that no matter how circumstances change in life... no matter if they go well or poorly, your relationship with God is unchanging.  Your relationship with God is not altered by those circumstances.  Look at Philippians 4.  Right after telling us to rejoice, Paul points us to the source of that joy - "The Lord is near."  He never leaves.  That relationship is absolutely certain - established not by anything we have done, but entirely by what God has done for us in Christ,  As St. Paul wrote in Romans 8 - "If God is for us, who can be against us?  If God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all how will He not also along with Him freely give us all things?  ...No in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that... nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  That certainty... that faith... that relationship established by God is why although you may not always be happy about your circumstance, in Christ you can always rejoice! 

So "Be a Kyah always!  I will say it again, Be a Kyah!" Be one who rejoices in Christ always!