Second Only to Love
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
Perhaps you’ve heard a Christian say something like:“You can’t always be happy because happiness is based on circumstance; but you can choose joy.”
The statement has truth. Happiness can be shallow and fleeting; joy has depth and resilience. But it can also paint an odd picture: an unhappy Christian whose sad soul uses willpower to be“joyful.”
Joy (chara) in the New Testament conveys something different. The word can be translated gladness or cheerfulness or delight. It conveys both depth and feeling. Joy bookends Jesus’ story in Matthew. At the sight of the star, the wise men“rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” And at the tomb, when the angel informed the women that Jesus was alive, they departed“with fear and great joy.” It’s fun to imagine these men and women, faces shining and hearts aflame.
Like love and peace and patience, joy is a fruit. Produce. It’s produced by another process. That means we can’t choose it directly. At least not very well or for very long. It has to be cultivated. And maybe that’s what folks actually mean when they say“choose joy” — to practice the things that produce the fruit of joy, like obedience, thankfulness, and yes, in the long game, even grief.
There’s also the practice of hope — meditating on future joy that awaits us on the other side of suffering. This isn’t powdered-sugar fantasy that melts away and leaves us empty. It’s the protein of promise that can sustain us today.
Sometimes I ponder Jesus in his agony, flesh suspended on metal, gasping for breath, and I wonder: What was the substance of that“joy set before him?” It must have been so rich, so extravagant, so beautiful to have sustained him on the cross.
On difficult days, the joy set before Jesus is the one candle that keeps life from going pitch black. He knew something that enabled him to endure. Even if I can’t quite access the joy he had in mind, I can hold on to him holding on to joy.
And on good days, I like to imagine Jesus, the one who turned water into wine to honor his mother and keep a party going, smiling and celebrating with me.
This essay first ran in Renovaré Weekly April 2021.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
“After love, joy is the next fruit of the Spirit. What a gift.” Richard Foster talks with John Mark Comer in this video recording from a live event in Denver earlier in October.
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2.
“Dear hesitating soul, you are missing such joy!” Hannah Whitall Smith (1832 – 1911) shares wisdom from the Holiness movement about the connection between obedience and joy.
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3.
Richard Foster explains that joy is the fruit of transformation in an excerpt from Celebration of Discipline.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
Often I am inclined to think that joy is the motor, the thing that keeps everything else going. Without joyous celebration to infuse the other Disciplines, we will sooner or later abandon them. Joy produces energy. Joy makes us strong.
– Richard J Foster
Celebration of Discipline
(source)
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TO CONTEMPLATE
Female Figure Kneeling on Clouds
Francisco Ignacio Ruiz de la Iglesia 1685 - 1690
(source)
Joy is here! God does not ask us to put on a happy face or think positive thoughts to receive his joy. Just to turn, open-hearted, and receive the One in whose presence there is “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16). We can do this even when our hearts are aching with grief or our stomachs are gripped by hunger. His presence and his joy are bigger than circumstances or emotions. As long as we are willing to lay aside our un-joy, God is willing and eager to fill our cups to overflowing.
TO PONDER
From a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi:
You are Good,
all Good, supreme Good,
Lord God, living and true.
You are love.
You are wisdom.
You are humility.
You are endurance.
You are rest.
You are peace.
You are joy and gladness.
You are justice and moderation.
You are all our riches,
and You suffice for us.