Two of my grandchildren teaching me what joy looks like.
Do you have joy?
What is joy? Whatever it is children seem to own it by default. They assume the day will be good. They look forward to the next few minutes regardless of the last few. It takes years of life in this remorseless world to drive joy from their hearts, and it takes a miracle to get it back.
When we try to define joy we usually mean something like “happy”. But joy is something different. If happy were a flower then joy would be the ground from which it grows. Happy is temporary, joy is eternal. Happy is something you feel, joy is something you own. Joy is a reservoir of well-being that never diminishes no matter how much we draw from it, because it is constantly being fed from another world.
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Joy is embedded in Christian theology in a way that cannot be said of any other system of thought. It is all over the New Testament. It is second on the list, after love, of the fruit of the Spirit. It is the testimony of tens of thousands of hymns. So I am often dismayed by my own lack of joy. I let this world drive it out of me when I stop seeing God in it.
But God himself, contrary to the rumors, is an ocean of joy. He rejoices over his people. He rejoices over his creation. He rejoices over himself. He claims to be the very source of human joy; when I stop believing this I end up allowing a bitter and cynical world leave me angry and empty. Joyless.
Our culture is remarkably joyless today. Do not listen to it. It is too easy to be ungrateful. You have been created for gratitude, for praise, for joy. Lift up the eyes of your heart and consider the wonder of your existence. The pursuit of happiness is a fool’s errand, it will leave you exhausted and disillusioned. But the pursuit of joy is the pursuit of God, and it is worth every moment of the rest of your life.
I am sitting alone in a hotel lobby on Thanksgiving morning as I write this. I’m a thousand miles from home dealing with the logistics of the sudden death of my oldest brother. It has been a grim week in many ways, yet I cannot stop thinking about joy. Happiness abandons us at times like these; it comes and goes in our lives like an ally cat. But joy is stubborn; it is present even through tears, like a mountain in the rain.
Joy is the most neglected, and one of the most needed of the Christian graces. I am convinced that it is available to all of us. My grandchildren taught me that.
“The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.”
Julian of Norwich
“The joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Nehemiah