Kaitlynn Carroll

2 Samuel 6: 14-22 (NIV)

14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

Reflection:

The word “stubborn” has been a word that’s stuck out to me this summer, in the best of senses. I want to be more stubborn in my faith, in my study of the Bible, in my commitment to my friends, etc. I want to be more stubborn in my joy because when you boil it down, that’s exactly what joy is. It isn’t circumstantial or wavering, but is instead stubborn and rooted in our relationship with God. 

What has blown my mind as I’ve interned in student ministries this summer is just how stubborn in joy these students are. During our 6th grade Galveston retreat earlier this month, I had the privilege of riding in the van with the girls to most of our destinations, and every van ride, we sang the same song:

“100 bottles of milk on the wall, 100 bottles of milk! Take one down, pass it around, 99 bottles of milk on the wall!

99 bottles of milk on the wall, 99 bottles of milk!…”

(You get the picture)

While this seems like just a goofy song, y’all, they sang this song with a verse for each number counting down from 100 to 1 every van ride. For a moment of each ride, I would divert to being just like Michal, the daughter of Saul in our 2 Samuel story. I would shrug off their song as something sung by children, and dismiss it as foolish or not worth my time. But by the time those thoughts formulated in my brain, I couldn’t help but be impressed by their relentless, stubborn joy. It was the childlike faith Jesus encouraged in Matthew 18. They sang every verse with enthusiasm, and when I joined in their singing, I was immediately surrounded by the joy they pursued so intently. 

This is the kind of joy we can all strive to have. Whether you’re on verse 2 of life or verse 87, choose to approach each season with joy in your relationship with God- be stubborn with your joy. He is the source of the joy David exhibited, the joy I saw firsthand in our 6th-grade class, and so much more. 

We don’t have to downplay the things that we grieve and struggle through, because those are very much real and worth lamenting. The trick is that when we have stubborn joy in the Lord, we don’t leave ourselves in those places of grief. We are able to look at the most excruciating of circumstances, give ourselves the time and attention we need to begin to heal and hope for a better day because we serve a good God. The 6th graders exemplified this without even trying, and David showed this without even realizing it. I can only hope to try and do the same.

Prayer:

Dear God, help me to have the joy shown to me through your Word and through our students. Abide in me, so that I can experience your joy, and be forever transformed. Amen.