Now under a soft glow of two flickering candles in the advent wreath, another candle is lit which adds more light to darkened worship in cathedrals, small country churches, or huge modern auditoriums. The newly lit candle–light pink in color–contrasts the other two candles which are purple. Why the difference in color? Dating back to ancient traditions in the Christian church, pink or rose color symbolizes “joy”.

A popular Christmas carol sung by people around the world is “Joy to the World”. This beautiful hymn was written as a poem by Issac Watts and published in the 1700s. His work was based on Psalm 98 and actually is about Christ’s “second coming”, not as an announcement for His birth among the nations. In this particular psalm the author uses beautiful word pictures to describe honoring the Lord with loud worship and praise. We find these phrases:

• Shout for joy
• Make music with harps
• Trumpet blasts and ram’s horns
• The rivers clap their hands
• Let mountains sing

That’s quite the noisy approach for celebrating the Lord!

In our children’s ministry at my church, I have delighted privilege to help lead our young elementary students in group worship time. After the children settle on their benches, a countdown to group worship begins. A video starts at “30” and the kids join in announcing the descending numbers. When we reach “10” their small voices increase in volume with each number until at “zero” they are full volume! I love it. I love their excitement. I adore their passion. I am thrilled that our children have been given “space” to be loud and crazy for Jesus. I always think that we adults have much to learn from children who worship loudly without worrying about what others think about their silly antics. Oh, there are some who don’t fully engage…but seeing most who do…brings a smile to my face, especially when I see 4th and 5th graders–you know–the ones who are thinking it’s “not cool”– join in singing and making  motions we use for our songs.

Likewise, in my role as the ministry leader for our adult Celebrate Recovery ministry, I get to see men and women come through our doors who are hurting, some very deeply. They are wounded. Some are deep in addictive behavior. Somber and downcast faces are evidence of feeling bound in chains. But God. But worship. I am amazed that in “our” time of worship, these same men and women have hands lifted high as we sing about God’s love and His promises to give us freedom, hope, and healing from all that keeps us feeling hopeless.

I see women who have exited spousal abuse. I see women celebrating years of freedom from alcohol. I see men who have victory over pornography. I see women who are living life with mental health struggles. I see worshippers filled with hope and “joy”.

The holiday season is one of the most difficult times of year for anyone working on recovery. It’s why one of our last lessons we teach at Celebrate Recovery is titled “Relapse” which emphasizes the importance of being present at meetings and using every available support system to stay on track. Usually each week we welcome a new person to our group, someone who has reached a place of having lost all hope to be better. At CR we love newcomers. We love seeing men and women come back week after week in order to “let go” and “let God”,  restoring what life’s hurts, habits, and hangups have stolen from their lives.

At Celebrate Recovery, we offer hope, peace, and “joy”. We don’t do any of those things on our own, but only through the power of Jesus Christ. And now that we also offer Celebration Place for the children of our attendees, we are changing the very atmosphere in our families homes. Having these youngsters with us in our worship time is another beautiful sight to see–kids dancing around the room, jumping up and down–as their parent(s) also worship our Lord. 

Tuesday nights of worship are sheer “joy”. We are doing our part to bring the words of “Joy to the World” alive, following its commands to be “loud and crazy”.

If you are someone who needs peace, love, and joy–we invite you to join us. We meet at the Fowlerville United Brethren Church at 7 pm. Find us on Facebook or call 517.223.9490 for more information.