Embedded Files
Sep 12-18, 2021
by Dr. "Joey" Alan Le, Ph.D.
Day 1: Introduction to Joy & Human Flourishing
Day 1: Introduction to Joy & Human Flourishing
About five years ago, I (“Joey” Alan) attended a small group gathering. We had broken up into groups of three for prayer time. When we asked our friend what her prayer request was, she responded that she was asking for God to give her joy. I nodded and said that I wanted joy, too. Who doesn’t want joy, right?
Strangely enough, I had no further comment on the subject. Having been born and raised in the church, one would think I would have more to say about the subject. On top of that, one would think that my seminary degrees would have some sort of insight into the nature of joy, how to acquire it, and how to recognize it once we have it.
But here I was, at a loss for words. I was of no help to my friend or myself. All I knew was that I wanted it too. So, after praying for her, I joked: “Let me know when you find it!”
A couple of years later, I watched a show about minimalism. This particular organizational method helps a person cultivate an environment that makes them happy by using this criterion: “Does this spark joy?” The instructions are: “Pay attention to how your body responds. Joy is personal, so everyone will experience it differently; [it is like] ‘…a little thrill, as if the cells in your body are slowly rising.’”[1] Not much to go on, is it?
Isn’t it strange that something so desirable is also so indescribable? Isn’t it odd that something so good is often out of our reach because we don’t know what to look for?
When I first watched Pixar’s 2015 movie Inside Out, something resonated within me. Joy is the first emotion in which newborn Riley experiences. The other emotions — Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness — promptly follow Joy. But it is a Christian truth that Joy is the first and the last emotion of human life.[2] For God is the source of joy,[3] and God calls us to enter into his joy (Matt. 25:21).
But what is joy, where can it be found, and what characterizes joy so that we know that we’re experiencing it? This study was born out of a personal desire to understand what we are looking for in life.
Reflection
What are the similarities and differences between joy and happiness?
How is joy deeper and more meaningful than happiness?
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[1] "Rule 6: Ask Yourself If It Sparks Joy," accessed Aug 24, 2021, https://konmari.com/marie-kondo-rules-of-tidying-sparks-joy/.
[2] "Disney Pixar: Inside Out," 2015, accessed Aug 24, 2021, https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/inside-out.
[3] Psa. 16:11; Phil. 4:4; Rom. 15:13.
Day 2: Christianity: The Religion of Joy
Day 2: Christianity: The Religion of Joy
Christianity is a unique religion of joy.[1] The word “joy” and “rejoice” appear throughout the New Testament: a total of 326 times.[2] Jesus himself is the embodiment of joy. Everywhere Jesus went, he left some measure of cheerfulness and hope in the people he touched. The common folk welcomed Jesus with eager hospitality and saw his presence as a joy and a blessing. If Jesus were a stern or gloomy person, people would not have been so attracted to him.[3]
And, yet, Christians are so often perceived as killjoys. The mood of joy is often absent during our workweek and our Sunday worship. We may sing about it in our hymns and Christmas carols (“Joy to the World”), but joy plays a marginal role in our everyday walk.
Seasoned believers, especially those with ministry training, pay close attention to people’s pain, trauma, illness, despair, anger, and conflict. However, they are not as well-trained in listening for signs of strength, hope, or joy.[4]
Joy is an emotion that ranks above all other emotions, and yet it is also the least understood. Why is the subject of joy missing or underplayed in so many churches and seminaries? Sometimes, it is for a valid reason. Maybe we want to be sensitive to those who are suffering.[5] After all, how can believers laugh and rejoice when so many people are hurting?[6] Sometimes, it is for an invalid reason. Perhaps our cynicism and pessimism outweigh our hope and joy. There is a strong temptation to believe that our unfortunate circumstances are unsolvable or inevitable.[7]
Human life is, undoubtedly, pockmarked by pain and sorrow. But suffering is not meant to take center stage. Instead, the main thing that God wants for us is to share in his joy. George MacDonald says it well:
Jesus is in himself aware of every human pain. He feels it also. In him too it is pain. With the energy of tenderest love he wills his brothers and sisters free, that he may fill them to overflowing with that essential thing, joy. For that they were indeed created.[8]
In other words, God intends to fill us up with his joy. All human life leads up to this one thing. Suffering is real, but the joy of the Lord will one day outshine pain. Joy is our final destination, God’s ultimate gift.
Reflection
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most often), how often do you feel a sense of joy in any given week?
If joy feels absent in your everyday walk, can you put your finger on why this is so?
Why is it easier or more comfortable to listen to stories of pain and hurt rather than stories of hope and joy?
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[1] Miroslav Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing: Essays on Theology, Culture and the Good Life, ed. Justin E. Crisp (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, November 1, 2015), 6.
[2] William G. Morrice, Joy in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1984), 15.
[3] Morrice, Joy in the New Testament, 86.
[4] Mary Clark Moschella, Caring for Joy: Narrative, Theology, and Practice (Leiden: Brill, 2016/09/07, 2016), 3.
[5] Moschella, Caring for Joy, ix.
[6] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 6.
[7] Moschella, Caring for Joy, ix.
[8] George MacDonald, Hope of the Gospel (Public Domain, 1892). https://books.apple.com/us/book/hope-of-the-gospel/id508348986.
Day 3: Moments of Joy
Day 3: Moments of Joy
God has set us on a journey towards unsurpassable joy. Let us pause now to observe when and how joy comes over us. Maybe then we will begin to realize what joy itself might be.
Reflection
Recall a moment, an experience, when you felt joy.
Recount a highlight or a memory that stands out to you as rich, meaningful, and simply enjoyable.
What other words could you substitute for ‘joy’ (for example, gladness, blessedness, celebration, etc.)[1]?
Can you think of an emotion that ranks higher than joy?
Now that you have spent some time reflecting on your experiences of joy try asking the people around you (family, friends, co-workers), when have they experienced joy?
Joy is such a multifaceted concept that it seems to require multiple perspectives to unpack its meaning. In this series on Joy and Human Flourishing, we encourage you to explore other perspectives on joy. It may just be someone else’s point of view that helps you come to a greater and more profound understanding of joy.
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[1] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 17.
Day 4: A Hypothesis on Joy
Day 4: A Hypothesis on Joy
Theologian Miroslav Volf proposes an intriguing hypothesis that will serve as a preliminary definition of joy. Joy is an emotion, not a feeling. One feels a feather tickle one’s nose. It is a bodily reaction.
However, joy is a positive reaction to an event. It takes place first in one’s heart and then moves the body. When a child is born, one rejoices over the birth. Something good happens.[1] One responds to that good with what is called “joy.” One does not will oneself to be joyful without reason. There is always a reason, a cause, an object of one’s joy. (For the Christian, the ultimate object of joy is God.)
Therefore, for joy to occur, I must understand some thing, some object, as good, and then I must perceive that it has happened to me.[2]
To illustrate, notice the difference when it comes to physical exercise. If I believe that physical fitness is good, I will enjoy the twenty burpees or mile-long job that my trainer demands. I will enjoy the muscle soreness that comes with tension under pressure. However, if fitness is not a goal of mine, then I will perceive my trainer as a callous torturer and the soreness as an intolerable wound. To enjoy exercise, I must understand fitness as something good and perceive the soreness as a side effect of that good and that the sweat and the strain help me to achieve that good.
So, on the one hand, joy partly comes from some external source, from the world around me, and from the circumstances I find myself in. On the other hand, joy can also come from within, from how I steward my heart. As Volf says, “I can rob myself of joy by failing to perceive good things as good things and to respond to them properly.”[3] If God gave me ninety-nine good things except for one, but all that I wanted was that one exception, then I will not rejoice. In truth, many of us may not feel joyful because we fail to perceive or recognize the good gifts that God has already given us. We only see what we have not received, and therefore, remain dismal.
In sum, in Volf’s view, joy is an emotional attunement between the self and the experience of blessing. Something good happens to us, and we recognize it as a blessing, and so our hearts rejoice over it.
There are additional factors. Joy is usually partial; it’s not all or nothing. Joy overlaps with other emotions (like sorrow); it does not override other emotions. Joy can be intense (like when your favorite team wins the game), or it can be gentle (like when you gaze at your sleeping baby). It can be simple or complex. It can be episodic or enduring.[4] In all of this, joy is the deepest desire of our hearts and connects us to God.
Reflection
Do you agree that joy always requires a reason, a cause, an object? Is it possible to have joy for no reason?
Can you think of a personal example of joy coming from an outside source and another instance in which joy came from inside?
In hindsight, have you ever robbed yourself of joy? If so, how?
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[1] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 129.
[2] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 129.
[3] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 130.
[4] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 130.
Day 5: Joy and the Good Life
Day 5: Joy and the Good Life
Now we direct our attention to the relationship between joy and human flourishing, otherwise known as “the good life.” What is the good life? What does it mean to live well and to thrive? At the core of the inquiry is the question, what does it mean to be a full human being, and what is a life worth living?
Continuing with Miroslav Volf’s hypothesis, he defines the good life as the balance between a life that feels good, a life that goes well, and a life that is lived well.
The first component is about experiencing life in which pleasure overshadows pain. The second is about achieving those external, objective marks of well-being (like a stellar career or having a happy family or satisfying an internal, subjective goal (like being at peace in whatever circumstance). Third and lastly, the good life is about living in accordance with human nature or to the law of God. If one can hit all three components, one can say that one lives “a good life.”[1] We will continue this investigation tomorrow.
Joy, then, can be likened to “the crown of the good life.” Just like how a crown is a symbol of royal authority, so is joy a symbol of the good life.[2] Joy itself is not the good life, but it is the emotional expression of the combination of a life that feels good, goes well, and lived well.
One does not have to simultaneously possess all three components to have joy. Instead, it arises whenever we receive good, big or small, and whenever we recognize it as something good. In another place, Volf says this: “Joy is the substance of life feeling as it should.”[3]
Therefore, let us celebrate any occasion in which God gives us pleasure, security, and meaningfulness.
Reflection
What is your vision of a flourishing life?
Assess the state of your life now: Does your life feel good? Is life going well for you? Can you say that you’re spending your life well?
Given your self-assessment, where are you thriving, and where are you starving?
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[1] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 133.
[2] Volf, Joy and Human Flourishing, 135.
[3] Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun, For the Life of the World: Theology that Makes a Difference (Grand Rapids: BrazosPress; Baker Publishing Group, 2019), 99.
Day 6: Joy Makes our Witness Credible
Day 6: Joy Makes our Witness Credible
Once again, we rejoice when we experience a good life. To this, the Christian faith makes a radical claim: God in Christ is “the only possible joy on earth.”[1] God provides the best life.
Of course, the earthly experience of joy is good while it lasts and serves as a signpost that points to heaven. But true and lasting joy cannot be found on this earth. It can only be found in Jesus.
The resurrection of Christ has “transformed the End into a Beginning.”[2] Death has lost its permanence, its finality. All the threats of death — sin, evil, pain, suffering — are overcome in the irrepressible life of God.
Orthodox priest and seminary dean Alexander Schmemann lays out the tight connection between joy and Christian witness:
It is only as joy that the Church was victorious in the world, and it lost the world when it lost that joy and ceased to be a credible witness to it. Of all accusations against Christians, the most terrible one was uttered by Nietzsche when he said that Christians had no joy.[3]
In other words, without joy, we cannot truly represent Christ in the world. Our witness to God’s love and power takes concrete shape when we exhibit the joy of the Lord. Whenever we experience joy, and whenever we attribute that joy to God, we testify to the goodness and grace of our Creator and Redeemer.
Let joy resound over all the earth!
Reflection
Is there a difference between earthly and heavenly joy? Explain.
How does Christ’s resurrection solve all of our earthly problems? Why is resurrection God’s solution to the problem of evil?
Is there any truth to Friedrich Nietzsche’s criticism? Have Christians lost their joy and, therefore, lost their credibility?
How, then, is joy supposed to validate the message of the gospel?
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[1] Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1998), 24.
[2] Schmemann, 24.
[3] Schmemann, 24.
Day 7: Joy as Feeling and Action
Day 7: Joy as Feeling and Action
Joy has two aspects in Scripture: it is a positive condition that can be either feeling or action.[1]
Joy as Feeling
A person automatically experiences joy when they enter into favorable circumstances, like well-being, success, or good fortune.[2] Here are a few examples:
The shepherd experienced joy when he found his lost sheep (Matt. 18:13).
The multitude felt it when Jesus healed a Jewish woman whom Satan had bound for 18 years (Lk 13:17).
The disciples returned to Jerusalem rejoicing after Jesus’ ascension (Lk 24:52).
Paul mentioned his joy in hearing about the obedience of the Roman Christians (Rom 16:19).[3]
Joy as Action
There is a kind of joy that Scripture commands that can be activated regardless of how one feels. Here are some examples:
Christ instructed his disciples to rejoice when persecuted, reviled, and slandered (Matt. 5:11, 12).
The apostle Paul commanded continuous rejoicing (Phil. 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16).
Christians are to reckon it all joy when they fall into various testings because such testings produce endurance (James 1:2).
In sum, joy can be both an emotion/feeling and a choice.[4] When times are good, the proper response is rejoicing in the Lord. And, when times are bad, it is possible (even necessary) to maintain a posture of joy.
How can we possibly make ourselves feel joyful when we experience hardship, distress, or suffering?
We can look back at how God has been good to us.
We can look forward to the day when God will finally fulfill us beyond our wildest hopes.
In any case, we can take joy in the knowledge that we are God’s beloved and that Jesus Christ has made a way for us to be with him (Rev. 19:7). No matter what happens to us in life, our joy is unshakable because of what Christ has accomplished for us.
Reflection
1. Spend some time thanking God and rejoicing in the Lord for the good that you have received.
2. In what areas/aspects of your life can you choose to be joyful, even if it is not going favorably?
3. Can you think of any other timeless reasons to keep your joy, irrespective of your personal circumstances?
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[1] Walter A. Elwell, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 2 vols., vol. 1 & 2 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988, 1988), 1224.
[2] Elwell, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 1 & 2, 1225.
[3] For more Scripture reference to joy as an emotion felt at favorable circumstances, see 1 Sam. 2:1; 11:9; 18:6; 2 Sam. 6:12; 1 Kings 1:40; Esther 9:17, 18, 22.
[4] Brenda Heyink, "Joy," in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry (Logos, Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2016).
Conclusion
Conclusion
For the next two months, we invite you to slow down and pay attention to moments of joy. Notice it, take it in, savor it, and share it. Joy is not the only emotion we feel, but it is “a high note in the emotional range.”[1] Joy is God’s good and holy gift. Joy is essential to human existence because it helps us be more fully alive, awake, and free.[2]
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[1] Moschella, Caring for Joy, 5.
[2] Moschella, Caring for Joy, 5.
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