We all want a bit of joy.
Commercials advertise for it. Politicians claim voting for their party will bring you joy. Apparently even eating certain foods will conjure a bit of joy like a magic potion.
But the thing is, joy is different than happiness. Happiness is based on circumstances, like buying the latest car or whether your politician won or eating a piece of chocolate. Happiness is external. But joy is transcendent. Joy comes from God.
When we surrender to God, when we know Him, we see life differently. Joy is the fruit of knowing Him.
This is why believers can even have joy in suffering as James writes, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2, NIV).
But perhaps, we don’t even know how to experience joy. Joy can be a scary emotion. It feels a bit like anxiety. It feels like the bottom is falling out, like we are out of control… because, we are. It is when we reframe that freefall as surrender, we turn anxiety into joy.
Maybe you’re like me. You’ve lived in survival mode for such a long time, waiting for the next crisis to happen, that you can’t allow yourself a bit of happiness. Joy feels like an indulgence. Sometimes it even feels dangerous.
We’ve heard “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). It comes from a verse in the book of Nehemiah. After seventy long years in Babylonian exile, the Israelites returned to their land, shell-shocked. They felt guilty for the lack of faith that had put them in exile to begin with. They were weeping and mourning when the prophet Nehemiah gave them a word from the Lord: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
He told them to cook a feast to celebrate the rebuilding of the wall around the temple. The message was clear: It was time to live joyously.
Maybe like the Israelites — or to a much lesser degree, like me — you have suffered. Maybe you don’t feel like you can be joyful, don’t know how to, don’t deserve to. But joy can follow suffering. We should not be frightened of it. Rather, walking through joy and suffering allows us to see the disparity between the two.
So how do we live a joy-filled life?
Gratitude
Joy begets joy. Joy is the presence of God in our life. He tries to grab our attention in quiet whispers, in a way that is very specific to each of us. Notice where He is calling to you in love. Life is filled with small moments of grace. The big ones don’t come that often. Look for those small moments of where Jesus is breaking through with His grace. For one person it may be nature. For another, chanced encounters with a stranger. For another it might be working through a tough problem at work. God reaches out to each of us specifically according to our personalities and interests. Notice these things. Acknowledge them. Thank God for these small mercies.
In his book Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis writes of moments throughout his life when he found joy. When he became a Christian, he realized that all those moments of joy happened when God was present. Joy was when God was pursuing Him through imagination, education, and relationships. Lewis equated joy with God Himself.
Joy doesn’t have to be something big. It is the small stuff that builds a joy-filled life. God is there in those moments. When I share joy with others. And when I let Him, His joy, be my strength.
Be in the Present Moment
Jesus tells us, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-26, NIV).
We need to be very present to the very moment we are in. Where is Jesus in this moment? Is He here with our family as we make dinner? As we laugh or maybe even argue? Of course, He is. When we practice being in the moment, we will notice His presence in our everyday lives.
When we practice being in the very moment with Jesus, we see small moments as holy. Peeling an orange, folding laundry or sitting in silence all pulsate with His presence and holiness. And, when we live in the present, the future is less scary.
Surrender to Jesus and His Plan for You
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It is the fruit of knowing Jesus. We know Jesus when we surrender control over our lives to Him. He has a better plan for our lives than we could ever imagine. Even when things get difficult, when we surrender control to Him, situations that once seemed difficult are viewed in a new light; in light of Jesus being with you to walk through difficult situations.
Do not wait for the big things to happen but find there is abundance today. Each day holds joy in the mundane and the magnificent — we just need to learn to see.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
- What small thing can you be grateful for? Now find five more. How does gratitude reshape the way you view life? Is this life one of scarcity or abundance?
- Is joy a scary emotion for you to feel? Why?
- What are some small activities in your daily schedule that bring you joy or make you feel closer to God?
- Practice being present. Where is Jesus right now? Is He in the room with you? What is He saying to you? What is He hoping you will hear?
In Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight, Shemaiah Gonzalez presents a collection of short essays recommending a fresh view on life, through her own experiences and discovery of finding joy in both the mundane and magnificent. Gonzalez teaches us to see joy as a way of life, giving us permission to claim God’s goodness even in a broken world — and to share it with abandon.
Shemaiah Gonzalez is a writer with degrees in English literature (BA), intercultural ministry (MAPS), and creative nonfiction writing (MFA). She thrives in moments where storytelling, art, literature, and faith collide. Her work has appeared in America magazine, Image journal’s Good Letters, Ekstasis, The Curator, and Loyola Press, among others. A Los Angeles native, she now lives in Seattle with her husband, whom she has known since she was fourteen years old, and their two teen sons.
