Enduring Joy: That’s How We run
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” –Hebrews 12:1–3
When “joy” came up during a study on the fruit of the Spirit, I first heard the Russian phrase: смех без причины – признак дурачины (“laughing for no reason is a sign of stupidity”). As a result, the group came up with these definitions: “happiness” depends on external circumstances; “joy” has a deeper source beyond our circumstances. So if we have the greatest reason for joy in Christ, how do we run our race with enduring Joy?
This passage shows us how the Table, and particularly the Cave are the key to us experiencing joy and endurance on the Road. The great hall of the “heroes of faith” in Hebrews chapter 11 witnesses not to their heroism, but that they became trusting recipients of God’s mercy, and willing participants in God‘s loving initiative. What we gain by surrounding ourselves with them is the encouragement to continue to learn to trust God to teach us to trust him in deeper ways. That’s one form of the Table, the spiritual community we need in our churches, on our teams, and in DBS groups, as we run the apostolic race marked out for us.
But this passage most explicitly points us to the Cave. First, “fixing our eyes on Jesus” and then learning to “consider him” so he becomes the controlling analogy of our lives. Nuanced Cave admonitions appear twice to help us see the growth and development involved in our journey into the Cave. At first, fixing our eyes on Jesus may simply mean looking to him, turning to him in repentance and faith, and then in consistent prayer. In time however that occasional looking is barely enough to help us throw off our overt sin and obvious, external entanglements. Later, the Cave draws us to fix our eyes on Jesus in more extensive and expansive ways, so that we can see and deal with our deeper internal habits of heart, so that the eyes of our hearts become ever more constantly trained on him.
This heart-habit of “fixing our eyes” on Jesus is what Ignatius of Loyola calls developing a “stronger attachment” to Jesus that produces a joyous “indifference” to our circumstances. Likewise, St. Benedict calls us to “prefer nothing to the love of Christ.” By the way, this also happens to be the best way to fulfill the Greatest Commandment found in today’s reading of the Gospel of Matthew (22:37).
If we’re honest, we’ll see that there’s always something hindering and entangling us from running the apostolic race without growing weary, or losing heart. The apostolic author of Hebrews and our best spiritual guides shepherd us into the Cave, to give the Spirit even more time and opportunity to affect these deeper processes of transformation in us, so they will bear their fruit around the Table and on the Road.
And yet again we hear: “Consider Him.” Have you ever stared at something so long that when you close your eyes you can still see its form? Or so that you still see its outline superimposed on whatever else you see, because of the lasting impression it made on your retinal nervous system?
The contemplation of Christ accomplishes something similar in the fibers of our being, so that his image fills our vision, changing how we see ourselves and others, and therefore how we live and run the apostolic race. Things that hindered and entangled start falling away with much less effort. The more and deeper we learn to “consider him,” the more we find we have a greater capacity to persevere, to bear our cross, and even to scorn its shame, because our hearts are no longer attached to our comforts, and our identity is less attached to our reputation than we are attached to Christ. And oh the joy that floods our souls!
As we hit the halfway mark in these 90 days, and today start the 40 days of Lent before Easter:
How much is your “joy” influenced by your external circumstances?
What are the internal entanglements that keep you from running your apostolic race?
How might you more intentionally surround yourself with a “cloud of witnesses” that would encourage and shepherd you to learn to trust God to teach you to trust him?
How might you “fix your eyes on Jesus” in new and deeper ways, so that the experience is less fleeting and more formative?
How could you “consider him” in more extensive and expansive ways so the Spirit can affect more lasting transformation in you?
What is the joy God is setting before you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bill O'Byrne and his wife, Priscilla joined Novo in 1992 and served in St. Petersburg, Russia from 1993 to 2015, where they raised their four children. Bill now lives in Pennsylvania and since 2016 has led the Order of Imago Christi, a covenant community of spiritual formation ministry in Novo. Bill has also written A Lenten Journey contemplative devotional, among other self-published titles. For more information, see: https://www.imagochristi.org/bill-obyrne.
