When something great happens in your life, how many of you start to celebrate only to find yourself thinking, Don’t get too happy, that’s just inviting disaster? Put your hands up.
You got promoted, you’re really excited. You got engaged. You found out you’re pregnant. You found out you’re going to be a grandparent. Something wonderful happens, and for a brief second you let the joy wash over you—and then five seconds later, the excitement is gone and you’re panicked about a bad thing that’s going to happen to counter the positive.
You parents: How many of you have stood over your child while they were sleeping and thought, Oh, God, I love this kid more than I knew was possible, and in that same second felt fear wash over you and pictured something horrible happening to your child? Statistically, it’s about 90 percent of us.
Why do we insist on dress-rehearsing tragedy in moments of deep joy? Because joy is the most vulnerable emotion we feel. When we feel joy, it is a place of incredible vulnerability—it’s beauty and fragility and deep gratitude and impermanence all wrapped up in one experience.
When we can’t tolerate that level of vulnerability, joy actually becomes foreboding, and we immediately move to self-protection. It’s as if we grab vulnerability by the shoulders and say, “You will not catch me off guard. I will be prepared and ready for you.” So when something joyful happens, we start planning on being hurt. We start planning to deal with the fear of disappointment.
Is this helpful? Of course not. We cannot plan for painful moments—we know this for a fact, because people who have been forced to live through those moments tell us that there is no amount of catastrophising or planning for disaster that prepares you for them.
The collateral damage of this instinct is that we squander the joy we need to build up an emotional reserve, the joy that allows us to build up resilience for when tragic things do happen.
evening only ….
At work, foreboding joy often shows up in more subtle and pernicious ways. It shows up by making us hesitant to celebrate victories, for two primary reasons. The first is that we’re afraid if we celebrate with our team, or have a moment where we just breathe, we’re inviting disaster and something will go wrong.
You can likely identify with that feeling of getting a project up and out the door and then refusing to celebrate it with high-fives because you think, We can’t celebrate right now because we don’t know if it’s going to be perfect, we don’t know if it’s going to work, we don’t know if the site will stay up …
The second way foreboding joy shows up at work is withholding recognition. We don’t want our employees to get too excited because there’s still so much work to be done. We don’t want them to take their foot off the gas, to get complacent. So we don’t celebrate achievements. We think we’ll do it someday, but these same factors persist in the wake of joy. This is how foreboding joy shows up at the office, and it is a costly mistake.
What Does the Bible Say about Joy?
Before we dive into the numerous verses that talk about joy, we have to establish an understanding of biblical joy. It goes far beyond momentary happiness. Like the happiness a child might experience when they unwrap a gift that they’d hoped for on Christmas Day.
It is an extreme happiness that cannot be deterred by present circumstances. This type of joy comes from God alone. Joy can often be experienced when a Christian thinks about salvation, eternal life, or Jesus.
It is an eager anticipation about wonderful things to come. The shepherds experienced this as they ran to Bethlehem to see Jesus.
With the definition of joy established, let’s dive into what Scripture says about joy:
- God fills us with joy (Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit). We cannot will ourselves to experience joy. It comes from God alone.
- It’s a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.). We experience more joy when we spend time with God. We have to keep in mind that joy only comes from God, but when we spend more time with him, we allow him to fill us with it.
- No one can take joy from us (John 16:22 I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy). Given to us by God himself, no one has the ability to rob us of our joy. No matter what circumstances we encounter, no one can take this away.
- Joy rests in things from God such as salvation and righteousness (Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation).
Depending on the translation, joy appears more than 100 times in the Bible.
I think my favourite is Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
I am not interested in a religion that offers anything less than fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. That’s why my favourite all time verse is John 10:10 Jesus said I have come so that you might have life in all its fullness.
I LOVE that verse!
How do we live it? How do we experience the Joy the Bible speaks of? Why Does it Matter?
It matters because, while we wait for Christ to come again, we don’t have to despair. God has given us a joy that no one can take away. No matter what happens in this dark world, we can experience light. We experience difficulties differently than the world. We have light even in the darkest moments.
Joy is essential to the Christian experience. We cannot get far without it, and we need it as we, like the shepherds, anticipate the coming of our Savior.
This forth week of Advent, let us remember that the good news of Jesus’ birth has the power to bring us great joy this Christmas season. Our joy isn’t dependent on what is going on in our life, in our world, or the people that we are with. It doesn’t depend on the gifts we give or the gifts we find under the tree. No earthly thing can ever give us complete joy. Our joy comes from God. That joy that flooded the hearts of the shepherds, the angels, the wise men, the hosts of heaven, and Mary and Joseph is the joy that still has the power to overwhelm our hearts with rejoicing.
I want to be more joyful, don’t you?
We need to be more Joyful
But we can’t just be joyful
But we can take steps towards it.
Practice Gratitude
What is the one thing that people who can fully lean into joy have in common? Gratitude. They practice gratitude. It’s not an “attitude of gratitude”—it’s an actual practice. They keep a journal, or make a note of what they’re grateful for on their phones, or share it with family members.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I have encouraged giving thanks. I regularly ask ‘What are you thankful for?’ Believe me, it is not because I am a naturally thankful person. Rather I am trying to work on it.
Begin each day
End each day
Use the meal table
Topic of conversation
It will change you.
It will give you a window into each others lives
It will give you an invaluable window into your kids’ lives and hearts. Embodying and practicing gratitude changes everything.
It is a unifying part of our existence—and it’s the antidote to foreboding, plain and simple. It’s allowing yourself the pleasure of accomplishment, or love, or joy—of really feeling it, of basking in it—by conjuring up gratitude for the moment and for the opportunity. It’s allowing yourself to recognise the shiver of vulnerability—that “Oh, shit, I have something worth losing now” feeling—and to just sit with it, and be grateful that you have something you want, in your hand, that it feels good to hold and recognise.
Try starting and ending everything you do with a gratitude check, when everyone shares one thing they’re grateful for, can build trust and connection, serve as container-building, and give each other permission to lean into joy.
Do it on Christmas Day
Celebrating Good Things
Whether we’re leading a group or a member of the team, whether we’re working in a formal or informal recognition program, it is our responsibility to say to the people who work alongside us: “We’ve got to stop and celebrate one another and our victories, no matter how small. Yes, there’s more work to be done, and things could go sideways in an hour, but that will never take away from the fact that we need to celebrate an accomplishment right now.”
Look out for what God is doing
When Jesus took up the word of Isaiah he was in a sense setting out his manifesto.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
Isa 61:2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
Isa 61:3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.
Through Advent we have looked at Peace Love Hope & Joy and seen that there is an Invitation attached to each Advent theme. An Invitation to
Abide – Rest in God’s Goodness
Adore – Give God Glory
Aspire – Desire the Divine
Be Alive – Live Life to the Full
These things were on Jesus’ agenda. Blind people like Bartimaeus would see. Oppressed people like the Gaderene demoniac would be released. For work like that and for much, much more, Jesus had been anointed.
The mission to which we are called is just the same. It’s radical, it changes life on earth. It regards this world as still belonging to God. It regards people as having value and being loved, with a need to have a broken relationship with God mended so they can share eternity with Him and Peace Love Hope & Joy and know fullness of life now.
Many times Jesus healed the sick, delivered the demonised, fed the hungry, and forgave sinners. He never put any conditions on his acts of love. “I’ll give you fish and bread if you become my disciples”. Of course he longed for a response but there were no strings.
God loves all people and Jesus showed how that love could be brought down to earth.
God still loves all people, and still wants to meet their need and wants to do so through the feet and hands he still has on earth. Your feet and Hands. And again not because we are made to but because we embody his love on earth because his love has touched us too.
So that’s it then, I have to give up my joy to try and help others find it. NO
I tell you there is no better thing than being involved with the purposes of God. There is nothing more satisfying than the experience of God empowering and using you to do thing you had never thought possible. There is absolutely nothing on this earth that compares to seeing someone receive the love of Christ.
Prayer
Those who gathered around the new baby were blessed because they believed that you had fulfilled your promises. Mary and Joseph believed and were able to feel the joy of holding baby Jesus in their arms. The shepherds and wise men believed the angles and the signs and experienced the great gladness of worshipping their Messiah.
Those who knew him and recognized him were overjoyed at the coming of Jesus. They saw the prophecies fulfilled and their fear was replaced with happiness as they gazed on the face of the one who would be their Savior. They trusted in your promises and their hearts were filled with gladness as they watched your loving-kindness manifested in the face of a tiny baby in a lowly manger.
Father, you offer that same joy to us now if we know you and recognize Jesus as our Savior and Lord. You gave us a reason to celebrate when you gave us the unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ. You came to dwell among us. You went to Calvary’s cross for us. You overcame death and rose from the dead for us. You forgive our sins and give us eternal life when we believe in you.
Our joy doesn’t come from our jobs, our family, our relationships, our finances, or our success. Our joy doesn’t come from what we have on earth or who we are with. Our joy is a gift. It is the gift that you gave us that first Christmas in Jesus Christ. Our joy is encompassed in our Savior, King Jesus. Flood our heart with joy this Advent season as we reflect on the good news of Jesus’ birth. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen