Today's Scripture Reading (March 21, 2024): 1 Thessalonians 5
I apologize for my following words. I am not trying to
get a song stuck in your head. Bobby McFerrin was wrong when he sang his hit
song, Don't Worry, Be Happy." The central concept of McFerrin's song was
adapted from Indian Mystic Meher Baba, who advocated in his teaching, "Do
your best. Then, don't worry, be happy. " Scholars (people march smarter
than I) have argued whether joy and happiness were the same for years. Could
they be separated? Some have tried to take the emotion out of joy, but I think that
is a misapplied effort. Joy is an emotion, but at the same time, it is also more
than emotion. Happiness often seems to exist on the surface and is changeable at
a moment's notice. You can walk into a restaurant happy as you enter the door,
spill coffee on your lap, and cry out in sadness (and pain). Why do these
things always happen to me? Lousy news affects our happiness. Happiness is
fickle, but we seem to chase after it anyway.
Joy is more profound; it is still an emotion but more foundational.
And joy, to a certain extent, is a choice; you can choose whether you will be
joyful. So, Paul gets to say to us ""be joyful always.""
An example of this is found in a story originating
from the Vietnam War. The Hanoi Hilton was a prison built by the French around
1886. It was called Maison Centrale, literally Center House. Maison Centrale
became famous as a place of torture and death for American POW's during the
Vietnam war. John McCain spent five and half years at the Center House, as did
Admiral James Stockdale.
Admiral Stockdale arrived at the Hanoi Hilton in 1965.
He would be released in 1973. During that time, Stockdale would be tortured
over twenty times. He lived out the war without any prisoner's rights, no set
release date, and no certainty of whether he would ever see his family again.
One of Stockdale's achievements at the Hanoi Hilton
was that he instituted rules for prisoners at the Center House. He knew that no
one could endure torture forever, so he set up certain things that the
prisoners could say when they had been tortured for a specific length of time.
He gave men milestones that would help them survive. He also developed a
communication system of taps. It was a five-by-five matrix. "Tap, tap"
was A – "tap, pause, tap, tap" was B – and the prisoners would
communicate with each other even during periods of prolonged silence. At one
point, during an imposed silence, the prisoners mopped and swept the yard using
the code, swish-swashing out the message "We love you, Stockdale."
Jim Collins arranged to interview Admiral Stockdale
for his book "Good to Great." In preparation for the interview, he
read the book that Stockdale had written with his wife, "In Love and War." The Stockdales
had written the book, each writing alternating chapters. Collins says that as
he moved through the book sitting in his comfortable office on a beautiful
Saturday afternoon, he could feel himself getting depressed. He spoke to
himself, "I'm getting depressed, and I know the end of the story. He comes
home and is reunited with his family; he becomes a national hero and gets to
spend his later life studying philosophy. What would it have been like to live
through it and not know the ending?"
When Collins asked Stockdale the question, his
response was a little surprising. Here is what he said "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not
only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn
the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I
would not trade" (James Stockdale in Jim Collins "Good to Great).
Here is the beginning of joy. Joy says, despite what I
am experiencing, I have faith in the end of the story. I may not be happy with where
I am, but I know that this moment is one that I won't want to trade because it
will strengthen and form me.
Joy isn't optimism. When Collins asked Stockdale if
there was a type of person who didn't get out of the Hanoi Hilton, Stockdale
responded that the optimists never left the Center House. It was the ones that
said we will be home by Christmas or by Easter who didn't make it. They died
broken because these deadlines kept on passing them by. You can almost hear
Stockdale preaching, you will not be home by Christmas, but you will get home; deal
with it.
I don't want you not to worry and be happy. I also don't
want you to live with an emotionless existence. I want you to understand joy, a
core emotion that says, "I have faith in the end of the story. I have decided
that this is an experience I won't want to trade." I will be joyful,
always.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1 & 2
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