“How’s your joy-strength?” 

My friend asks that question often. It’s a reminder that joy isn’t an add-on to the Christian life — it’s essential. Joy permeated the message of Jesus: ​“I have told you these things so that you can share my joy” (John 15). And it sustained him in death: ​“for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross”.

This month we explore celebration, a fitting conclusion to our twelve-month focus on the twelve spiritual disciplines from Celebration of Disciplines. 

As the book’s title suggests, joy and celebration are at the heart of the disciplines. Or at least they need to be. Richard Foster:

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.

Like love and peace, joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Duct taping an apple to a stick doesn’t make it an apple tree. Likewise, joy can’t be tacked on. It has to be cultivated and grown. How? Thankfulness is the place to start (see Psalm 100, which our staff happened to pray through today). Carolyn Arends offers another good idea: enjoy simple pleasures with God.

May the smile of God strengthen your soul today,