Lives Defined by Joy

“Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness” – Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

There is an immense joy in the Spirit of the Lord. C.S. Lewis contends that God is the most joyful being who has ever existed. His joy is based in love and his omnipotent sovereign understanding. We do not follow the changing god of happiness; we come to know the glory and joy of the God of the Ages, whose joy in his creation responded the most vivid example of love human history has ever known. His delight in his creation is based on his own perfection and his glory embodied in his will. The one who created the heavens and the earth knows the praises which extend from the highest cherubim above the holy citadel, to the creatures of the deep who mysteriously and beautifully exist for the majesty of the creator. The rocks cry out and the mountains lift their exaltation to the heavens – all creation glorifies Him. And as it goes with praise, it is hard to truly adore and honor without the contagious joy of understanding its significance. And glorifying the joyful Lord and experiencing the joy of his presence forever is the chief end of man. We are joyfully rewarded in a future of our hearts overflowing with the all-encompassing delight of the presence of the Father.

Too many times in the here and now, we find ourselves decisively confusing our joy in the Lord and the happiness in our lives. Amidst a Christian sub-culture that revels in earthly happiness, experiential spiritual pleasure seeking, and equation of material possessions to God’s blessing, balanced with a traditionalist background of sour faced abstinence of life, based on self-controlling ourselves into a comatose, judgmental assimilation into fundamentalism. It is no wonder that we miss the idea of an utterly joyful God and instead battle between a world of happiness and despair, guilt and victory, and grace and entitlement. These are the constant hurdles in our efforts to stay with our hearts and minds focused on God instead of ourselves. We must comprehend and realize that joy in God is a mindset of calm and trust embraced in a true understanding of who He is. To playfully laugh in the face of life’s incredulity, based in the perspective of his control, is a true level of understanding into who the Father is and what trusting in Him regardless of circumstance feels like. The joy of being silly, feeling free enough to dance naked in joy before the Lord, or the inability to contain your praise for Him as we see a sunset, touch the tiny fingers of a baby, or feel his transcendent peace amidst turmoil; this is the Joyful Creators heart beating strong inside of us. This is joy superseding happiness.

Looking at happiness, even in the etymology of the word, is something that comes as a result of something that happened. Happiness is a recollection of the passing. As the old Irish proverb goes, “the only one who is all-together happy all the time is the village idiot.” One can be happy, but it is rarely a sustaining force, and usually is combated a hundred times a day by small instances of negative experience. Usually we have to put happiness in a context to identify it. Happiness is often said to be sought, but it is seldom found in the isolation of itself. This is due to the idea that happiness is subjective. Joy is based in an experience of consistency. When you win a game – happiness is a result. When you get a refund on your taxes – happiness is a result. When categorically good things happen to us, we experience happiness, and create the moment of it happening we identify it. Joy is beyond this. Joy inexplicably resonates deep within us and carries us forward through our circumstances of the moment. The mother who cradles and kisses her baby, who was born with Down syndrome; she is not happy with the affliction, she is joyful in the grace of holding her child and how much she loves him, no matter his condition. The joy which comes from the Father is not easily swayed, as in the happiness of a moment or circumstance. The married couple celebrating their 50th Anniversary can recall the happy and the disheartening experiences of getting through so many years with struggle and success. Their joy is held in the reality of a depth of love which has taken 50 years to know, experience and be strengthened through a variety of circumstances. True joy is not so simple or easily attained as the pleasure of the moment, or the selfish pursuit of desire.

To understand joy, we can look at Christ and his interaction with joy. The woman who anointed Him with oil – He was not happy for her because of the costly exercise of action for God; He was joyful in her deep adoration of the Son of God which moved her to be joyful in her expression to Him. Jesus directed the disciples not to focus on the authority over the demons they tried to cast out, but the joy in their salvation which saw the demon’s true master, Satan, defeated for all eternity. Jesus Himself speaks of his joy based in the sovereignty of God, the provision of sacrifice for the sins of all humanity and God supremely using Him to be the way, the truth and the life. Happiness is embodied in attaining, joy is only known in truthful understanding. Moments may be defined by pleasure are happiness the same as misery and disappointment; lives are defines by joy. Joy can happen in struggle or success. It can be known by emperors and fools, kings and pawns. Joy is understanding in the depths of our hearts and minds that resonates truth, grace and love. Joy lasts with us well beyond elation. Joy brings peace well better than satisfaction. Joy consumes us. Joy stays with us. There is complete joy in the Lord. Joy in a Christian’s life is an accurate and pleasing response to knowing God. When we know our Joyful Creator, we trust Him for our sustenance and we come face to face with his desire for our lives to be marked by joy in Him. This is a life identified by the power which doesn’t just casually talk about a happy life based in living the Christian method, blissfully ignorant to the reality of the world and the difficulty in it due to sin. You are not here to experience a purpose-driven existence identified in the tenets of your isolated success in your life, community or relationships. The power of living in the joy of God is identified in the transformation of deep contentment and peace based in the correct perception of God being the pivotal connection, center-point and purpose of all existence. Our happiness is of no value if it does not draw us closer to God. We must live with the perspective of the Father. We were not meant to happily roll along like the village idiot in Christ avoiding reality for the blissful idea of not suffering the consequences of a sinful world, because we have acknowledged a forgiving Savior. We also do not angrily abstain from the world that aborts babies, drinks and smokes, is Muslim and Buddhist, hates Jews and Christians or lives a capitalist, consumer focused or socialist ideology. We are responsible for responding to those around us as Christ did – in the power of love for people and joy in the sovereignty and provision of the Father.

As we go forward, we must center our hearts on the purpose of understanding the joy of the Lord God Almighty. He takes joy in his creation. We should focus our hearts on this type of joy known only in Him. This joy fills the depths of our hearts, inexplicably shaking us loose from our distractions, confusion and despair. One of the glowing signs of knowing God is a true understanding of joy and peace in Him. As we interact with the most joyful being, we must come to be changed to emulate Him in this manner. As Paul says to the Corinthians, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of words, but of power.” Let us cease to speak about the happy moments in Christ, and begin living visibly identified by the overflowing of his joy in our hearts. God revealed Himself to us that we might live in the power of his life-changing joy and share the source of our joy with others. Mother Teresa lived very simply in service of others. From her joy in the glory and adoration of Christ, she changed her world by living in the power of what she believe: “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love” We can share this joy our interactions to all around us, that they might see true joy and know its source deep in their soul.