Before I answer that question, I need to issue an apology for commenting problems here. Ever since I did an update a while back, I’ve been forced to moderate comments. All of them, including my own. I try to approve them immediately when they pop up on my phone. Occasionally, I miss one. Sometimes, I forget to approve my own, and days later, it feels awkward to do so. According to my settings, I don’t have to approve commenters who’ve left at least one prior comment. I have no idea why moderation isn’t working according to the settings, and I don’t have time to go to my host and search around for the problem, and I updated all the widgets here already. This apology is for any comments I unwittingly left in moderation (including my own, as they were meant to be in response to yours). Normally I have no desire to moderate at all; that’s what the spam filter is for.
On to the topic of the day: that nebulous concept known as joy. What is it, exactly? I don’t know. I don’t have a strong sense for feelings, but I know it’s generally defined as a constant in the soul that isn’t defined by temporary circumstances. Some Christians define it as an enduring trust in God. In Galatians 5, it’s housed between love and peace in the fruits of the spirit. I know what love is. I know what peace is. I know when I experience love and peace in others and in myself. But I find joy to be too intangible to recognize.
To be fair, all the fruits of the spirit are intangible concepts that spill over into real life actions. Someone filled with peace will be a peacemaker, a mediator, an unbiased judge. Someone filled with love will sacrifice what they want — or even need, at times — for others. Patience is demonstrated with a steady determination through trials and setbacks, even when they are caused by others. Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control — these all have real world applications.
What are the real world applications for joy? How do we spot this trait in others? I’m asking honest questions, as I honestly don’t know the answers. However, the Christians who’ve defined “joy” as “trust” are on to something, I think. When we trust that God will always be there for us despite temporal struggles when we don’t feel his presence, we are content anyway. I know this is true; I’ve felt this kind of contentment. In fact, it usually expresses itself most fully at times when I have little or no control over a situation.
Is trust a trait that radiates from the face? Yes, and it can be seen in the eyes of small children whose parents have never dropped them, let them go, or failed to care for them. The elderly often have it too, but it looks different on them because they have lived long enough that they should have stopped trusting in humans at the very least and probably even questioned God’s hand in their lives at times, and yet a resiliency shines from their eyes. They smile at people anyway, and the smile goes all the way to the eyes.
I was inspired to explore the concept of joy after reading an inspirational book called You Gotta Keep Dancin’ by Tim Hansel. I read it some time ago but accidentally flipped it open the other day to where the author quotes Nehemiah 8:10: “…the joy of of the LORD is my strength.” I’ve read that Bible verse numerous times, and yet, its meaning never registered with me. Because I rarely sleep and have no future hope of getting adequate sleep, I tend to think of things operating the opposite way: once I have slept enough and regained my strength, I will be joyful. But that’s not what the verse says. It says strength comes from joy. Not sleep. Not good health or a perfect diet. Joy. God’s joy.
Maybe this concept isn’t as earth-shattering to you as it is to me. And obviously, you can see why I would want to define joy, pin it down, and concentrate on feeling it. After all, an intangible reality that acts on a physical reality must be able to be measured somehow. It’s measured in my days, though. It’s numbered in the fact that I get through each task of every day off 0-4 hours of sleep a night and still laugh at jokes and maintain hobbies around my erratic work schedule. If joy is a deep trust in God, then I can sense its existence without having to define it further.
Jill Domschot 