Gladys was born in Indiana about the time World War I ended, around 1919 or 1920. Her parents were farmers, but they were not very successful, for, we believe, her father was a bit too fond of the bottle. When liquor was banned a year or two after Gladys was born, he was not happy. But he grew corn on his farm, like many in Indiana, so he found a solution to his problem with a coil of copper tubing and a bit of ingenuity. It is amazing how clever people can be when they want something bad enough.
When Gladys’ father had too much to drink, he would look around at his home and he could see everything that was not working well in his life. And, as most people do, he blamed others. In his case, he blamed his wife.
It was his wife’s fault for having children. It was his wife’s fault when the cow got out, it was his wife’s fault when the crop failed, it was his wife’s fault when he didn’t have enough money.
Mother took the children to church when she could on Sunday mornings, trying to get back home before Papa woke up from his Saturday night. But for just an hour or so, there was peace. But soon, things became the church’s fault, also.
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; Luke 1:46-55
As the children grew older, they began to attract his drunken attention. And so, Gladys looked for and found a protector, and eloped with him when she turned fifteen, which was old enough to marry with Mother’s permission. But she always felt guilty about doing that.
As many girls do, she had unconsciously looked for a man like her father. And she found one. Except he was a bit more sober – yet just as controlling. She never went to church again while he lived, for he was a very jealous man. Despite this, she never left him, because she felt guilty over leaving her mother and father for this man.
Over the years, through World War II and after the war, Gladys and her husband moved. The eventually settled in Ohio and stayed there in a small house, never having more than a single car, because Gladys might leave if they had a second car. And so she spent her days and nights alone in that small home, raising her children, raising a garden, sewing and cooking and cleaning.
When Gladys was seventy years old, she began to notice a problem in her vision. The center of her left eye was sort of “fading out”, and eventually, she was able to get to the eye doctor. She had macular degeneration, which gradually robbed her of her sight. Everything gradually went dark.
Finally, one day, she found her husband dead and that burden of control was lifted. Yet what was she to do? She stayed alone in the house as the eye disease slowly got worse.
After a few more years, Gladys and her daughter decided that she could no longer live at home alone, for she was almost blind. She was eighty-eight years old.
And so arrangements were made and Gladys came to live at the nursing home. Once again, things didn’t get off to a very good start. Her first roommate died two weeks after she arrived.
And then she got a new roommate, Virginia. Virginia was 98 years old and could see just fine. Her mind was still sharp. She could barely walk with help, and she was nearly deaf. But Virginia could speak – loudly!
The first few nights were not good. Virginia would cry out in her sleep. But she talked with Gladys. Virginia talked about her church and God and the love of Christ. She loved Christ, you see, who had always taken care of her.
And as Virginia talked, Gladys listened. And slowly, the darkness began to lift, for she began to realize that God didn’t hate her for getting married, and perhaps even, God was not punishing her directly for running off. In fact, through Virginia’s talk, she began to realize that she had punished herself through her poor decisions and God simply wanted her back.
But how could she get to church now, after all these years?
Virginia talked of her church and people from Virginia’s church began to visit Virginia. They brought gifts, they came and talked, they prayed, and they talked with Gladys. They were kindly people – not wealthy, not very well-off, - but they shared what they had with Virginia and Gladys. And what they had, more than anything else, was joy. And they prayed with Gladys.
And so, after about six weeks, when the pastor came to visit, Gladys called him over and said, “Pastor, I’d like to join your church.”
And the next week, a half-dozen men and women from Virginia’s church showed up at the nursing home with hymnals and they sang songs about Christ and the pastor read from the book and asked Gladys some questions, and Virginia laughed and Gladys said a bunch of “I will’s” and at the end, the pastor put some water on Glady’s forehead and Glady’s knew she was right with God once again. And you know, it was like a light switch turned on with Gladys.
Over the next months, the people continued to come and visit with her and Gladys, who had never laughed much, learned to laugh again, and she remembered sunny days when she was a little girl in Indiana. And she smiled much more than she had before.
After a few months, Gladys’ daughter found her a place with a private room in another town, and so she moved there. At that new place, she met a man who had trouble walking, so she would push his wheelchair while he told her where they were going, and they talked and talked and talked as friends full of joy will do...
You’ve seen other examples of joy. The fourth grader arriving home after the last day of school before summer break, the woman who has just given birth and holds her child for the first time, the man who has just been pronounced the husband of the bride he has been pursuing for years, the woman who sees her husband walk back through the airport, home from Afghanistan, the young man who just got hired into his dream job, the girl who was just asked to the prom by the high school quarterback. The family that was just baptized as a group, and the woman whose biopsy just came back negative for cancer. All of these are examples of joy.
Yet, there are those who have lost their joy.
You see, a life without God depends upon our own abilities. That’s usually just fine when we are teenagers or in our twenties, for we are still testing our abilities. But as we mature, eventually all of us come up against limits to what we can do.
For some, those limits hit us as teenagers in middle school, high school, or college. We are bullied, we fail in classes, others are picked for the sports teams we desperately wanted, the girl or guy we are interested in picks another. Life hits us like cold rain.
For others, it happens when we try for a job and are told we aren’t qualified or as well-qualified as others, or we get a job for a while and then are fired or laid off. We want to get married and the other just wants a fling. A loved one dies and there was nothing we could do about it. All of these force us to look at ourselves as having limits. And our joy flees from us.
But despite what all the commercials and movies and motivational speakers tell us – we were never supposed to be unlimited in our abilities. We were never supposed to be self-sufficient. We were never supposed to stand alone in the Universe, controlling our destiny.
No, our destiny lies in the hands of Christ. And, at first, that is a shock to us. For we have been bullied so much in our lives that we don’t want to let go of the control.
But those who know Christ’s character understand how wonderful it is that Jesus is in control, for Jesus is much wiser than we are, He is truly unlimited because He works with what God can do, and Jesus loves us much more than any other human can love another human.
And so, for those who truly know Christ, to relax into God’s hands after living in the world is like coming home from a two-mile walk with a light jacket in ten degree weather in the face of a 20 mile per hour wind ... and crawling into a king-sized bed with the softest flannel sheets freshly warmed from the dryer and covering up with a down comforter in front of a roaring fire.
Mary, the teenage mother of Jesus, encountered an angel who told her she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit with a child who would save the world, and that generations of people would call her “blessed”. Her joy filled her to overflowing, for she had studied God’s character. As Luke tells us:
She sang:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
Why was Mary so joyful?
Because God had noticed her and she knew that God had noticed her. How can anyone help but be joyful who has been touched personally by the wisest, most powerful, and most loving Being in existence?
If you know God’s character, you will be joyful. If you don’t know God’s character, you might be suspicious, resentful, worried. If this is you, then perhaps you need to study more about God.
Most of us have met people that are always joyful, or almost always joyful. How could we swap out our sadness, our cynicism, our suspicion for joy?
Perhaps the easiest, the best way, the simplest manner is to practice a habit of gratitude. In the morning, at noon, and in the evening, as you begin to pray for the day or for a meal, practice listing three or four things God has provided you for which you are grateful. A warm house, a kitchen full of food, the telephone which allows you to speak to others, a home where you can look outside and see trees, clean water, chocolate…whatever you think of that day. Practicing gratitude will train you to recognize the works of God in your life and you will see that God is with you every day, like an excellent butler setting the table of your life even before you know that you will sit down at that table.
If you have trouble developing this habit, put a note on your mirror – “Have gratitude for the small things.”
And as you develop this habit of gratitude that leads toward joy, consider what Isaiah wrote, the words that Jesus read when He first began His ministry:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
You see, the way to understand the character of God is to study God by reading about Jesus, for Jesus was God walking upon the earth.
Think, for example, of what Jesus did for you, personally, when He died upon the cross. He paid the penalty that was due from you for all those things you have done wrong to others, all those actions that hurt your parents, that hurt your siblings and friends, all that hurt your children. He paid the price for every unkind word you have said, a price that would have taken your life from you, for you and I have injured God’s images who walk around us. Jesus paid the price for the destruction you and I have caused in the world. And He did it gladly, because that is what a loving Person does for those they love – and Christ loves each one of us more than an excellent older brother loves a baby brother or sister.
You will notice that the Isaiah quotation begins, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me…”
When we were baptized, in addition to the water involved, the pastor prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon us. And therefore, this passage is true for each of us. Read with me:
the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
Each of us has a purpose in life given to us by God individually. This passage applies to all baptized Christians.
Pastor, do you mean I have permission to do these things?
Folks, we not only have permission, we have been given the opportunity and the marching orders to do these things.
Can you imagine the joy you will received when you tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to the poor, that they are welcome among us? Can you imagine the joy there is when you tell someone of Christ’s love for them and they stop sobbing in sadness and their tears turn to tears of joy? Can you imagine the joy you will feel when someone who is mourning suddenly realizes that they will see their loved one again? Can you image the joy when someone who has been despairing suddenly in your presence starts to praise God?
Years later, after Jesus had left the building and returned to the Father, the Apostle Paul wrote of the wonderful nature of this mission and how we feel when we participate:
Paul wrote:
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Yet Paul also understood how we can miss the joy, for he gave us a warning:
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. When you feel the Spirit moving – and you will, for YOUR spirit will rise with it – do not calm down. Don’t say, “I can’t do that” – for you can with the Spirit of God directing you.
Don’t say, “I’m getting out of control and need to stop.” - for sometimes this world needs someone a bit out of control, as the crowd at Pentecost was when they began to praise God to each other in dozens of languages.
Do not quench the Spirit – for the world needs more of the Spirit to be transformed into what God wants. And as you give thanks in all circumstances, as you pray continually, as you learn to rejoice always – you will become one of those wonderful people, a person filled with joy who spreads the wonderful knowledge of who God is to all the people you come in contact with. And the Psalm will be fulfilled.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
As the children grew older, they began to attract his drunken attention. And so, Gladys looked for and found a protector, and eloped with him when she turned fifteen, which was old enough to marry with Mother’s permission. But she always felt guilty about doing that.
As many girls do, she had unconsciously looked for a man like her father. And she found one. Except he was a bit more sober – yet just as controlling. She never went to church again while he lived, for he was a very jealous man. Despite this, she never left him, because she felt guilty over leaving her mother and father for this man.
Over the years, through World War II and after the war, Gladys and her husband moved. The eventually settled in Ohio and stayed there in a small house, never having more than a single car, because Gladys might leave if they had a second car. And so she spent her days and nights alone in that small home, raising her children, raising a garden, sewing and cooking and cleaning.
When Gladys was seventy years old, she began to notice a problem in her vision. The center of her left eye was sort of “fading out”, and eventually, she was able to get to the eye doctor. She had macular degeneration, which gradually robbed her of her sight. Everything gradually went dark.
Finally, one day, she found her husband dead and that burden of control was lifted. Yet what was she to do? She stayed alone in the house as the eye disease slowly got worse.
After a few more years, Gladys and her daughter decided that she could no longer live at home alone, for she was almost blind. She was eighty-eight years old.
And so arrangements were made and Gladys came to live at the nursing home. Once again, things didn’t get off to a very good start. Her first roommate died two weeks after she arrived.
And then she got a new roommate, Virginia. Virginia was 98 years old and could see just fine. Her mind was still sharp. She could barely walk with help, and she was nearly deaf. But Virginia could speak – loudly!
The first few nights were not good. Virginia would cry out in her sleep. But she talked with Gladys. Virginia talked about her church and God and the love of Christ. She loved Christ, you see, who had always taken care of her.
And as Virginia talked, Gladys listened. And slowly, the darkness began to lift, for she began to realize that God didn’t hate her for getting married, and perhaps even, God was not punishing her directly for running off. In fact, through Virginia’s talk, she began to realize that she had punished herself through her poor decisions and God simply wanted her back.
But how could she get to church now, after all these years?
Virginia talked of her church and people from Virginia’s church began to visit Virginia. They brought gifts, they came and talked, they prayed, and they talked with Gladys. They were kindly people – not wealthy, not very well-off, - but they shared what they had with Virginia and Gladys. And what they had, more than anything else, was joy. And they prayed with Gladys.
And so, after about six weeks, when the pastor came to visit, Gladys called him over and said, “Pastor, I’d like to join your church.”
And the next week, a half-dozen men and women from Virginia’s church showed up at the nursing home with hymnals and they sang songs about Christ and the pastor read from the book and asked Gladys some questions, and Virginia laughed and Gladys said a bunch of “I will’s” and at the end, the pastor put some water on Glady’s forehead and Glady’s knew she was right with God once again. And you know, it was like a light switch turned on with Gladys.
Over the next months, the people continued to come and visit with her and Gladys, who had never laughed much, learned to laugh again, and she remembered sunny days when she was a little girl in Indiana. And she smiled much more than she had before.
After a few months, Gladys’ daughter found her a place with a private room in another town, and so she moved there. At that new place, she met a man who had trouble walking, so she would push his wheelchair while he told her where they were going, and they talked and talked and talked as friends full of joy will do...
You’ve seen other examples of joy. The fourth grader arriving home after the last day of school before summer break, the woman who has just given birth and holds her child for the first time, the man who has just been pronounced the husband of the bride he has been pursuing for years, the woman who sees her husband walk back through the airport, home from Afghanistan, the young man who just got hired into his dream job, the girl who was just asked to the prom by the high school quarterback. The family that was just baptized as a group, and the woman whose biopsy just came back negative for cancer. All of these are examples of joy.
Yet, there are those who have lost their joy.
You see, a life without God depends upon our own abilities. That’s usually just fine when we are teenagers or in our twenties, for we are still testing our abilities. But as we mature, eventually all of us come up against limits to what we can do.
For some, those limits hit us as teenagers in middle school, high school, or college. We are bullied, we fail in classes, others are picked for the sports teams we desperately wanted, the girl or guy we are interested in picks another. Life hits us like cold rain.
For others, it happens when we try for a job and are told we aren’t qualified or as well-qualified as others, or we get a job for a while and then are fired or laid off. We want to get married and the other just wants a fling. A loved one dies and there was nothing we could do about it. All of these force us to look at ourselves as having limits. And our joy flees from us.
But despite what all the commercials and movies and motivational speakers tell us – we were never supposed to be unlimited in our abilities. We were never supposed to be self-sufficient. We were never supposed to stand alone in the Universe, controlling our destiny.
No, our destiny lies in the hands of Christ. And, at first, that is a shock to us. For we have been bullied so much in our lives that we don’t want to let go of the control.
But those who know Christ’s character understand how wonderful it is that Jesus is in control, for Jesus is much wiser than we are, He is truly unlimited because He works with what God can do, and Jesus loves us much more than any other human can love another human.
And so, for those who truly know Christ, to relax into God’s hands after living in the world is like coming home from a two-mile walk with a light jacket in ten degree weather in the face of a 20 mile per hour wind ... and crawling into a king-sized bed with the softest flannel sheets freshly warmed from the dryer and covering up with a down comforter in front of a roaring fire.
Mary, the teenage mother of Jesus, encountered an angel who told her she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit with a child who would save the world, and that generations of people would call her “blessed”. Her joy filled her to overflowing, for she had studied God’s character. As Luke tells us:
She sang:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
Why was Mary so joyful?
Because God had noticed her and she knew that God had noticed her. How can anyone help but be joyful who has been touched personally by the wisest, most powerful, and most loving Being in existence?
If you know God’s character, you will be joyful. If you don’t know God’s character, you might be suspicious, resentful, worried. If this is you, then perhaps you need to study more about God.
Most of us have met people that are always joyful, or almost always joyful. How could we swap out our sadness, our cynicism, our suspicion for joy?
Perhaps the easiest, the best way, the simplest manner is to practice a habit of gratitude. In the morning, at noon, and in the evening, as you begin to pray for the day or for a meal, practice listing three or four things God has provided you for which you are grateful. A warm house, a kitchen full of food, the telephone which allows you to speak to others, a home where you can look outside and see trees, clean water, chocolate…whatever you think of that day. Practicing gratitude will train you to recognize the works of God in your life and you will see that God is with you every day, like an excellent butler setting the table of your life even before you know that you will sit down at that table.
If you have trouble developing this habit, put a note on your mirror – “Have gratitude for the small things.”
And as you develop this habit of gratitude that leads toward joy, consider what Isaiah wrote, the words that Jesus read when He first began His ministry:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
You see, the way to understand the character of God is to study God by reading about Jesus, for Jesus was God walking upon the earth.
Think, for example, of what Jesus did for you, personally, when He died upon the cross. He paid the penalty that was due from you for all those things you have done wrong to others, all those actions that hurt your parents, that hurt your siblings and friends, all that hurt your children. He paid the price for every unkind word you have said, a price that would have taken your life from you, for you and I have injured God’s images who walk around us. Jesus paid the price for the destruction you and I have caused in the world. And He did it gladly, because that is what a loving Person does for those they love – and Christ loves each one of us more than an excellent older brother loves a baby brother or sister.
You will notice that the Isaiah quotation begins, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me…”
When we were baptized, in addition to the water involved, the pastor prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon us. And therefore, this passage is true for each of us. Read with me:
the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
Each of us has a purpose in life given to us by God individually. This passage applies to all baptized Christians.
Pastor, do you mean I have permission to do these things?
Folks, we not only have permission, we have been given the opportunity and the marching orders to do these things.
Can you imagine the joy you will received when you tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to the poor, that they are welcome among us? Can you imagine the joy there is when you tell someone of Christ’s love for them and they stop sobbing in sadness and their tears turn to tears of joy? Can you imagine the joy you will feel when someone who is mourning suddenly realizes that they will see their loved one again? Can you image the joy when someone who has been despairing suddenly in your presence starts to praise God?
Years later, after Jesus had left the building and returned to the Father, the Apostle Paul wrote of the wonderful nature of this mission and how we feel when we participate:
Paul wrote:
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Yet Paul also understood how we can miss the joy, for he gave us a warning:
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. When you feel the Spirit moving – and you will, for YOUR spirit will rise with it – do not calm down. Don’t say, “I can’t do that” – for you can with the Spirit of God directing you.
Don’t say, “I’m getting out of control and need to stop.” - for sometimes this world needs someone a bit out of control, as the crowd at Pentecost was when they began to praise God to each other in dozens of languages.
Do not quench the Spirit – for the world needs more of the Spirit to be transformed into what God wants. And as you give thanks in all circumstances, as you pray continually, as you learn to rejoice always – you will become one of those wonderful people, a person filled with joy who spreads the wonderful knowledge of who God is to all the people you come in contact with. And the Psalm will be fulfilled.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
Be Joyful!
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