Joy - a primer

In the middle of teaching His disciples about salvation, the Holy Spirit, obedience, and the hatred of the world that is bound to come their way should they take His teachings seriously, Christ said that, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Christ wanted for His disciples and wants for us a fullness of joy – a joy rooted in Him, able to withstand the most intense onslaughts the dominion of the enemy can bring to bear upon it, and lasting long beyond the length of our lives and into eternity.

But what is joy? I mean, what is it, exactly?

In Christianity, it certainly is easy to speak the words and talk the talk with only a vague, murky understanding of exactly what it is we’re talking about. Words mean things and those definitions really matter, so for the sake of clarity, I’ve decided to more-or-less begin this blog by defining some of the terms I will no doubt be using a lot throughout its compilation.

And perhaps the best way to start defining joy is by being crystal clear about what it’s not. And what joy is not is happiness.

Happiness is a circumstantial and reactionary emotion. We experience it in response to the various dynamics of our life in the here-and-now. It is a transitory and temporary state of mind, it comes and it goes and it definitely does not last forever.

Happiness is what we feel when we take a bite of an extraordinarily delicious steak, or when we see a player for our favorite team crush a game-winning home run, or when we find ourselves in the throes of infatuation and realize that the person we’re so into just so happens to be into us. Happiness is the receiving of a great gift or the high we get when we see a truly amazing film for the first time. It carries with it overtones of escape, lightness, relief, and achievement. It is good. Happiness is something to be celebrated and valued; something to be thankful for.

But happiness is far less than joy.

While happiness is dependent on circumstances and tends to be fleeting more often than not, true joy is more of a foundational quality of your life that stands stalwart regardless of immediate circumstances. While happiness comes and goes, joy remains. And it remains despite finding itself under fire from almost all sides almost all of the time.

Joy is the understanding that no matter what is going on in the world at large and no matter what is happening in one’s own life, the thing that holds, animates, sustains, purposes, and validates not just your own personal life but the entire world along with you, is good.

For instance, how might your life change if you believed, as a foundational, non-negotiable pillar of your worldview and identity, that each and every thing that happened to you was for your good? What would it mean to you to know that every circumstance of your life had your best interests, growth, and eternal security as its purpose? How significant would it be to trust that the One holding the universe together, breathing meaning into every iota of existence, and weaving all things together in the grand mosaic of life itself was good enough, loving enough, perfect enough, committed enough and concerned enough to bear the burden of accomplishing for you what you could never hope to accomplish for yourself?

Joy is the notion that at the very bottom, the thing upon which all of life and existence is built upon is a truly good thing. And because of that goodness, pain has purpose, justice is inevitable, and everything will eventually be put into its rightful place. Joy comes from trusting that all of the ought’s and all of the should’s of the entire universe will one day find their proper consummation.

Now, of course, as I mentioned before, our joy finds itself almost constantly under assault. We are tempted to believe that there is no ultimate purpose to existence, that the biggest questions we ask will not be adequately answered, and that all of the things that ought to be never actually will be. In building our lives upon the claims of a God who told us that He came to fill us with joy, we run into obstacles like terminal cancer, business failure, family deaths and a myriad of countless other pains and frustrations. And it is in those moments that false joy is fractured so that true joy might be constructed.

For joy is not the absence or even the avoidance of pain. Joy is not based in health or material abundance or in the fulfilled wishes of some kind of “good life.” Instead, joy is a commitment to the way things actually are: good in their creation and to be received with thanksgiving, but corrupted by sin and one day destined for redemption. So joy, instead of being destroyed by the pain and failures and disappointments of our lives, is what enables us to endure them without breaking. Joy is the strength to hold to truth in the midst of an all-out assault on our commitment to it.

Because of a good, almighty God who demonstrated His love by dying for His people without obligation, His people have been given the gift of a joy-filled existence: they can look to Christ and be reminded that all of the heartache, pain, and injustice of the world will one day be done away with and that all of the unhappy circumstances of their lives have meaningful, deliberate, redemptive purposes. Because He suffered and died for us while we were still His enemies, we can know that He has our best interests at heart. Because He showed how good He was in bearing our just punishment, His people can trust that there is no condemnation awaiting them on the other side of death.

This, and so much more, is what joy means. It is so much more – almost infinitely more - than happiness. Joy is living life knowing that it all matters, that it all means something and that it’s all meant to help you become who you were created to be. Joy has its sights fixed on the ultimate good and beauty of the universe and trusts that that goodness and beauty is enough to make right all of the crooked paths.

Left to ourselves, we would have no right to joy. And in ourselves, we have no reason to even be joyful. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (I Corinthians 15:57) so that we can “be steadfast and immovable,” (the very next verse).

Steadfast immovability in the face of the worst things this life can drudge up because of the victory Christ has given us is about as good of a definition of joy as I can imagine. Let’s go with that.

~

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. – Romans 8:1

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
– Romans 8:31-32

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. – I John 1:4-5