I need help.
I’ve been thinking a lot about joy because I’m having a hard time finding it.
Can you reply or comment with your definition of joy? How is it different from happiness?
Is there anyone in your life who is full of joy? What about them indicates they are joyful?
The psalmist celebrates ‘the joy of those who meditate day and night on the teachings of God.’ However, it seems that the more I’ve been transformed by God’s Word, the more I’ve become aware and outraged at the injustice, cruelty, and evil within my life, my faith communities, my country, and the systems of this world.
‘You have turned my joy to tears.’
And the more I’ve been moved to act, the more I’m exhausted, pessimistic, and nostalgic for a self-centered life. Is that where joy is hiding? Which has more joy to offer: sacrificial discipleship or the pleasures of this world?
I know what life the suffering need me to have. I see it in ocean eyes every morning. I hear it from chatty strangers who finally feel seen.
Go grind up your perky praise songs and drink them like a tonic.
This life feels heavy.
It’s crushing.
Joy, where have you gone?
Perhaps joy requires a certain measure of naïveté - but I can’t unsee what these new eyes see. And I can’t stop hearing through the vain words that these new ears hear.
Perhaps joy thrives in a theology that God will someday POOF! wave a magic sword and fix everything untoward - but centuries of church history have shown this leads to mass passivity, providing little relief to those now suffering.
Is joy, like justice, deferred for those sacrificing and suffering? Does it only exist as a future reward? Or can joy be found today?
Man…I feel it in the marrow of my bones. Sadness grows deep, deep down in my heart. My soul cries out, ‘How long will you be absent? How long will we be troubled? How long will you be silent? How long will we be ruined? HOW LONG?!’
Is that ‘you’ you, God? Or is it me?
Brothers and sisters, help me find joy. Where is it hiding amongst all this darkness?
These days I understand the heart ache that you describe. I see joy in the ordinary, everyday things. The quiet in the morning before the day gets started, doing dishes because we have the provision of food, digging my hands in the dirt as I spend time doing yard work. When I add up all those small things, there is joy in knowing that God is Creator, he is in control, and he has already won the victory.