The Universal right to Joy

We live in an era where we are constantly consuming the very best of everyone's life. In an era where communities look vastly different than they did 40 years ago. People see the edited, photo-ready, presentable versions of us at all times. We control what parts of us the world sees and in some ways that can be a good thing. I don't always want to share the not-so-pretty sides of my life and to be frank, I don't think anyone wants to see those sides of my life either. I don't blame them.

In the past year, I have been intentional about checking in on those around me. Through that I have learned a very valuable lesson. It's that everyone goes through it at varying degrees. Life simply doesn't care who you are, how nice you are, or about the good deeds you've done. Life is hard and nothing comes easy but difficult seasons produce fruit. Fruit that we get to carry with us forever and even share with others.

In the past two years alone, I have faced my share of struggle due to drastic work/life changes, periods of isolation, and concern about the overall state of the world. Despite it all, I found myself in the happiest, healthiest relationship, established financial stability for the first time ever (shout out to my husband). I have also felt very grateful to have grown into the strongest version of myself. I thank God.

I think as a society, we strive for this well known, "pursuit of happiness," I mean c'mon, it's in our freaking declaration of independence for crying out loud!! But pursuit doesn't guarantee achievement, that's the catch. In some instances, pursuing happiness might actually chase it away.

So, why joy and not happiness? Happiness is complicated. Our happiness can depend on several factors; from our circumstances, our habits, our relationships our sense of purpose and even the definition of happiness can vary from person to person. We have all seen those videos where people are asked the simple question, "Are you happy?" Many struggle to answer that question, in some ways the answer is yes and in some it's no.

Joy, on the other hand is simple. We don't have to think about it, we just feel it. Joy has a universal language, because the emotion itself is universal. We can enter into a moment of joy by encountering something delightful, we can conjure it in our mind, through memories or imagination. We can't fake joy, for example, we all know someone is faking a smile. This is because the muscles that contract around our eyes are not under our conscious control. Joy is automatic.

In short, joy is intrinsic and an essential part of our minds. While happiness needs to be pursued and explained.

And this is where we get real. How can anyone feel joy in difficult times? That's not automatic. The Bible has a unique way of keeping things simple. It clearly illustrates joy as being a choice, this leaves the ball in our court. Simply put, Biblical joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with contentment and satisfaction, because we know that God will use difficult times to accomplish His work through us.

We can choose to respond to life's trials with joy when we consider God's purpose for those times of suffering. Like I mentioned above, "Life is hard and nothing comes easy but difficult seasons produce fruit. Fruit that we get to carry with us forever and even share with others." While God may not cause the various hardships we face, he most certainly uses them.

There's a key technique to all of this Joy stuff in the book of James, Chapter 1:2-4. It reads:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Notice the word "consider." by definition it means, "[to] think carefully about (something), typically before making a decision." Its a natural human inclination to think that living through difficult times would not be a time for joy. Yet, we can experience genuine joy to the absolute fullest by considering the fruit that will come from difficult times.

You can choose to focus on the negative parts of your day, relieving the things that happened that you didn't enjoy, assign blames and even wonder "why do bad things happen to good people?" But by doing that you are actively choosing to completely miss all the beauty, happiness and little moments that are actually getting you closer to the life that was destined for you, closer to the person you are meant to be.

Choose Joy, it's yours.