Golden Hours: Hour of Joy
Written by: Brooke Palmer
There is a quiet assumption many of us carry: if life could become just a little less demanding, joy would finally find us.
If our google calendars stopped sending endless reminders of the next appointment. If the children grew older and the diagnosis changed. If the finances stabilized and we could simply catch our breath.
We often believe joy lives somewhere beyond our current circumstances.
But Scripture tells another story.
The writer of Hebrews compares life with Christ to a race—not a sprint, but a long journey requiring us to dig deep and continuously build endurance. There are hills to climb, obstacles to navigate, and moments when weariness settles deep into our souls. Yet the encouragement isn't to run faster or try harder, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and keep going.
Instead, we are told to "fix our eyes on Jesus... For the joy set before him he endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).
The words almost seem out of place. Joy and cross. How can they belong in the same sentence? Yet there they are.
Jesus did not endure because the cross was easy. He endured because love had already given Him a vision greater than His suffering. The joy before Him did not erase the pain, or make the journey any easier. Joy actually gave Him strength to move through what was before Him.
Perhaps this is where many of us misunderstand biblical joy. Joy is not pretending life isn't hard. Joy is remembering that hardship is never the end of the story. It is the quiet confidence that God remains faithful when circumstances are anything but easy.
That is why joy is not the reward for finally escaping a busy life; it is the strength that keeps us from being overcome by it.
The apostle Paul understood this well. Writing from prison, he confessed something surprising: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" (Philippians 4:11 NIV).
Notice one word: learned.
Contentment wasn't automatic. It wasn't part of Paul's personality. It wasn't reserved for seasons where everything was going in the “right” direction. It was formed over years of following Christ through hunger and plenty, weakness and strength, freedom and imprisonment.
Like a runner building endurance one mile at a time, Paul discovered that contentment is cultivated as we keep walking with Jesus.
Perhaps that is what sacred slowness really is. Not simply living at a slower pace, but allowing God to slowly reshape the pace of our hearts.
Sacred slowness invites us to resist the constant pressure to hurry through life. It teaches us to notice God's presence in ordinary moments, to pray before we react, to breathe before we panic, and to remember that our value has never been measured by our productivity.
What if every time we return our attention to Christ instead of our anxiety, another spiritual muscle grows? What if we begin wanting His presence more than our performance? His peace more than our progress? His voice, more than the endless noise demanding our attention?
Perhaps, then, slowly, this contentment Paul speaks of would bubble up as joy and begin to change us. Our grip on striving would loosen. We would have freedom from believing that we must earn God's approval through our accomplishments.
When we can build those spiritual muscles of living in joy no matter the pace or circumstance of our current situation, we learn what Paul called "the secret." Not that circumstances become easier, but that Christ is enough within them.
This is courageous living and a holy resistance.
It is courageous because it resists comparison. It resists hurry. It resists fear. It resists the lie that life begins once everything is finally under control.
The writer of Hebrews tells us to throw off everything that hinders. Sometimes those hindrances are not only obvious sins but invisible burdens:
unrealistic expectations
constant comparison
relentless self-sufficiency
the belief that rest must be earned
Jesus gently invites us to lay those things down. Not because the race disappears. But because He promises to run with us.
Perhaps today your soul feels tired. Perhaps your calendar is full and your heart feels even fuller. Hear the invitation of both Hebrews and Philippians. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Receive the joy that He offers—not as an escape from your circumstances, but as His sustaining presence within them. Because joy has never belonged only to those whose lives are easy. It belongs to those who know where to keep their eyes.
