When the Music Stops — Learning to Rejoice While Poured Out
What does it mean to rejoice when life feels poured out? Philippians 2:17–18 shows how sacrifice and suffering can become an offering of worship.
There are seasons when life feels like a sudden silence, like the music has stopped mid-song. Plans are interrupted, strength is limited, and the work you love is out of reach. You don’t choose it; it chooses you. And if you’re anything like me, your first thought is, This is not what I planned.
During that broken leg disruption many years ago, God delivered a gentle rebuke wrapped in mercy. A package arrived with the books I had ordered. On top was one by Joni Eareckson Tada. I knew her story: at seventeen, through a diving accident, her athletic young life became permanently confined when a fall resulted in paralysis. I felt the Lord whisper, “Your circumstances could be much worse. Let Joni teach you about walking by faith “when you can’t walk.” Not to minimize my pain, but to restore perspective.
Then a friend sent me a piece called “When the Music Stops,” with a quotation from John Ruskin, a highly influential Victorian art critic, social reformer, writer, and artist. He wrote that the rests or pauses in music are not mistakes but part of the composition. This imagery has stayed with me. He wrote:
“There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life melody, the music is broken off here and there by "rests," and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator.
How does the musician read the rest? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.
Not without design does God write the music of our lives. But be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests."
They are not to be slurred over nor to be omitted, nor to destroy the melody, nor to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear.” (Attributed to John Ruskin, 1819–1900)
Joy in the Midst of Sacrifice
This is precisely what Paul is modeling in Philippians 2:17–18. He is not writing from a spa day. He writes from hardship, yet he speaks of being “poured out like a drink offering.” In the Old Testament, drink offerings were poured out to the Lord as an act of worship (Numbers 28:7). Paul borrows this image to say: “My life is being spent in service, and I’m glad.”
This is unnatural supernatural joy.
It’s important to notice what Paul ties it to. In the verses just before, he speaks of holding out the word of life, shining like stars, living without the corrosive drip of complaining (Philippians 2:14–16). Then he says, even if my ministry costs me everything, it is worth it. Why? Because we are “building for eternity.” Because the gospel is bigger than comfort, and because Christ poured Himself out first.
Sisters, joy is not the denial of pouring out. Joy is the decision to believe pouring out is not wasted when it is offered to the Lord.
Paul calls for shared joy: “So you too should be glad and rejoice with me” (Philippians 2:18). Joy grows best in the soil of the church, with people holding each other up, reminding one another of the truth, showing up, serving, worshiping, and persevering.
This is why Paul keeps returning to ordinary obedience and ordinary means of grace: the Word, prayer, fellowship, and service. It is not a checklist for earning God’s favor, but a pathway in which our hearts are re-centered on Christ. I have found journaling especially helpful in hard seasons. Sometimes I can’t even identify what’s wrong until I start writing and praying, “Lord, show me the root.” By the time I finish, I can see the unbelief underneath the emotion, and I can take the next step.
Paul gives us a reason to take the next step: because Christ took the steps all the way to Calvary. We are reminded in Psalm 22 that the suffering of Jesus was beyond imagining. He became a man to save us. He endured pain we cannot fathom so that our suffering would end.
So when the music stops, we do not assume the song is over. We keep time with God. We look up and trust the Conductor. And we prepare, by faith, to strike the next note.
Rejoicing Together in Christ
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
If you are in a “rest” season, ask: What might God be making in this silence?
Choose one spiritual discipline to practice this week: Scripture reading, prayer, journaling, worship, even if it doesn’t produce a “warm, fuzzy” feeling.
Serve in one small, concrete way. Joy often catches up to us while we’re pouring out.
And let us not grow weary of doing good,
for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9
PRAYER
Father, when the music of my life seems to stop, keep me from despair. Teach me to keep time with You. Help me to trust that the rest is not the end of the song. Fill me with joy anchored in Christ, and make my life a living offering that reflects redemption. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.
