It’s Friday! And that means another installment in the ‘Reclaiming Words‘ series.
The intent of this series is to explore words that I think need to be introduced — or re-introduced — to this current generation of college students.
These words have lost their meaning… or have been mis-used and redefined in unhelpful ways… and therefore need to be reclaimed and redefined again so that they can be realized by our students!
Today’s word: JOY.
It’s a word that means, among other things, a state of happiness or felicity : bliss.
And I think we get (and our students get) the idea of happiness — even bliss.
But for me the key is in the distinction between a state of being (as denoted above) and a fleeting feeling.
Joy is not something that can be purchased, manufactured, coerced, forced, manipulated or conjured up.
It’s not fleeting or surfacy.
Instead, joy is something that springs up internally and bubbles up to the surface.
In many ways it’s uncontrollable and indescribable… even unspeakable!
How often do we see students living this kind of deep-rooted joy?
We know that there are some students who do… but they are definitely in the minority… and they tend to stick out like a glowing ember amid a sea of gray ash.
The word joy is found 214 times in the NIV translation of the bible — and occurs consistently throughout both Old and New Testaments — with a high concentration of occurrences in the Psalms and Proverbs (not surprisingly).
So significant to what God seemed to be up to…
And yet it would seem that we’ve grown content (in our society) to chase happiness instead.
Our students exhibit this unending pursuit through their purchases, experiences, relationships, addictions and more.
They look for a quick ‘fix’ — because that’s what they know… quick.
And hope as they may… no matter how many moments of happiness they are able to string together, it will never turn into joy.
That’s not how joy works.
The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes (Psalm 19:8).
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy (Psalm 30:11).
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (Psalm 51:12).
The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing (Proverbs 10:28).
There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace (Proverbs 12:20).
He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth (Luke 1:14).
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10).
Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Luke 24:52).
And I could go on and on…
I believe God desires His children to dance with joy — even in a world filled with pain — and even in the midst of personal chaos. We may not always feel like physically dancing in the streets (like David did), and that’s OK, but if the kind of joy that’s described above is unfamiliar and illusive (to us and/or our students), then a return to committed, intentional discipleship might be what’s most needed.
And I think that will be the reality for most (if not all) of the words we encounter in this series — without a commitment to discipleship, to earnestly pursuing Jesus, I think these words (and all that they represent) will continue to elude our students.
6 thoughts on “JOY”
good words guy-loved every verse and like you said, you could go on and on and on…it just seems that we run from correlating it to happiness….what emotion do you attach to joy? It felt like you were attaching happiness but you never named it.
You said joy “is something that springs up internally and bubbles up to the surface.” What bubbles up—an emotion–what emotion? I think Happiness. Obviously you said that our students seek happiness in temporary pleasures, “purchases, experiences, relationships addictions and more.” So I would rather say joy is a deep rooted happiness, in the eternal vs. an endless list of temporary things. Should our students ( and me) want to be happy? I think so. I think by helping our students see that Christians should be the happiest people on earth because we have found the only lasting treasure and eternal pleasure in the world-namely God. When we help students come to this reality—that we have found the greatest source of happiness in God (not his gifts, but God himself) than you can have and grow in this deep, passionate happiness. It seems however that instead we try to redefine joy to meet our hum drum christian experience (I didn’t see you do that) where I don’t have this inexpressible happiness, and instead of trying to become deeply happy in God I change the meaning of joy…
Hey David! Good questions here.
I think joy can be expressed in a number of ways… and the most obvious (at least much of the time) is happiness.
But I think it’s much more than that. As one of the Fruits of the Spirit, I see it as intricately tied to the other Fruit — love, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I think there’s something very significant here that often gets too quickly passed over.
I also see qualities of hope and of contentment in joy that often escape our present ideas about happiness.
I do like what you’ve said about joy being a deep-rooted happiness in the eternal — and I think that gets at the heart of what joy is (at least in my mind), but I do think we have to be careful about suggesting to our students (and ourselves) that God wants us to be happy… because I just do see that throughout scripture. I do see a God who wants us to be faithful, obedient and sold-out for him… and I believe that when this happens joy is one of the inevitable results.
What do you think?
Guy! First off I just realized what school you work at! I have a couple of friends in orange county that both went to Belmont-anyway that was a side note 🙂
When you say, “because I just do see that throughout scripture” did you mean to say “don’t” or did you mean to say “do”? Either way there is a big difference so I just want to be clear 🙂
Depending on how you meant to say that would be critical in how I respond. But I guess -yeah I do think God wants us to be happy….forever….with Him….and each of those fruit of the spirit has a different, yet intertwined the christian faith, application, and I want each of them to be defined to the fullest. I don’t know how else to take at least one verse, Ps. 16:11, any other way. God is the ultimate pleasure. At God’s right hand is joy. And that he has made known THAT path of life to us. We were made to pursue pleasure, and the path of life is that HE is the ultimate pleasure and joy—and its actually a good thing for us. Rather than stifle this desire to be fulfilled I want to enhance it for our students….and help them see the incredible power of the all satisfying savior…that CS Lewis quote blows me away…the one that God doesn’t find out desires to strong, but too weak b/d we are too easily satisfied!
I love this series your doing. I love to clarify definitions in order to get the proper intent of the word and then live it out accordingly….dude sorry for that long essay, but again, appreciate all you do and your work with these college kids!
Hey David!
Thanks for the dialogue! I appreciate the chance to continue to flesh this out.
And actually, I did mean to say “don’t” as in “I don’t see that throughout scripture.”
I think ultimately we’re getting at the same thing here — but it seems to me that when the bible refers to “joy” (as it does in Ps. 16:11) that it’s referring to something we can only attain through God. It’s a gift.
But if we go off in pursuit of the gift itself (joy… or maybe happiness) — as opposed to the Giver of good gifts — we will find ourselves woefully unfulfilled.
Does that make more sense?
absolutely my man-probably enough on this huh? Thanks for indulging me and I do appreciate your willingness to dialogue- and yeah, even when I encourage students to pursue greater joy/happiness, I recognize -man- it is a gift of God- it doesn’t happen without him but I also cannot help but see joy as a thermometer that helps me determine how much I am truly loving God and trusting Him.
If I have come to Jesus I should joyfully be willing to give up everything….(Matt 13:44) because I see the incredible value of God–and yet faiths a gift, and man I wrestle in this tension. It always seems to come back to God sovereignty/ mans responsibility somehow :)In the midst of trials rejoice (James 1:2 )…I am not having happiness, so either I need to redefine “joy” or I can look at my trusting God thermometer and see that I still have room to grow because I am not as happy as I could be—not fake smiles, but deep rooted happiness in God.
again guy- really appreciate your heart and we may be saying the same thing–I am just a little slow! look forward to more great posts in this series
Thanks David! Really glad you’re enjoying this series!
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