October 1st, 2013
Psalms 43:4 –Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.
From time to time, I’m writing about some of the “big” words that are key to Christianity, but that might not be that easy to define.
Today, it occurred to me that I should write about joy. It’s oddly appropriate, because today has not really been an easy day. The circumstances have not exactly been such as to make me “happy”. There’s one strand of the understanding of joy in understanding the differences between joy and happiness.
The core of joy, to me, is that I am joyful because of what Jesus has done for me. Happiness — and it’s opposite, sadness — are results of what the world does to me.(A fancier way of saying that is “joy is positional, happiness is situational”.)
Joy is a permanent state. Happiness comes and goes. (And so sometimes I’m sad, even though I’m joyful.
The word used for joy in the Bible convey three basic ideas — what brings us joy, our state of being joyful and our response to joy. But there are many aspects of joy that scripture describes which expand on these basics and deepen our understanding:
Are you getting the picture? Joy — real, full, Christian joy — is a big deal. The English mystic, Julian of Norwich wrote (in “The Revelations of Divine Love”):
And in the same showing [of Christ bleeding on the Cross) suddenly the Trinity almost filled my heart with joy. (And I understood it shall be like that in heaven without end for all that shall come there.) For the Trinity is God, God is the Trinity; the Trinity is our Maker, the Trinity is our Keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting Lover, the Trinity is our endless Joy and Bliss, by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The words “without end” and “endless” are so important in that wonderful passage. There is no way in a short devotional note to fully define joy, to touch on all of it’s aspects (I have said nothing, for instance, of the joy of serving God) — but perhaps we can point to one truth at the heart of Christian joy. Our joy is centered on Jesus, and he will never leave us or forsake us. We rejoice in The Lord. Always.