What is joy? According to Webster’s Dictionary, joy is a state of deep happiness and/or felicity. Therefore, it is fair to say that joy can be almost anything. Joy can be a funny video, a good laugh, watching a good movie, eating food that you have not eaten for ages (e.g. picture of Brazilian churrasco), a nap before having to face a difficult meeting, a good cup of coffee (preferably Brazilian coffee), getting a C+ when you are expecting an F.
The Bible talks about joy in a number of places. Depending on your translation, the word joy appears about 244 times and rejoice 192. More importantly, whenever the word rejoice appears, it does not appear as a choice but as a commandment.
One of the places that the spiritual discipline (practice) of Joy (rejoice) appears is in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Philippians 4: 1 – 9.
Philippians 4 is the final part of a letter Paul wrote from prison where people were beating him up to the point of death. Yet, Paul writes this final part of his letter focusing on the practice or, should I say, commandment of joy,
How can a man struggling between life and death in prison place such emphasis on joy?
One of the possibilities is hallucination. Right? Perhaps, Paul had been suffering so much in prison and people were beating him up so badly that he completely lost it. You know that suffering can cause you to either be deeply depressed or as we say in Portuguese, “Lele da cuca” (nuts). That is one possibility. Or, perhaps, Paul had a deep understanding that the spiritual discipline (commandment) of joy is intrinsically part of God’s character (essence). Perhaps, Paul, in lieu of his painful circumstances in prison, began deeply seeking and understanding what Nehemiah meant by,
“Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10
Perhaps, Paul started seeking, deeply understanding, and experiencing one of the most important characters (essence) of God – joy. Perhaps, Paul started asking God to experience and be filled with His joy. John Ortberg asserts,
“[God] has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. We will not understand God until we understand this about him: ‘God is the happiest being in the universe’”
I don’t know your experience (image) of God. Perhaps, you grew up learning that God is neither fun nor joyful. Deep inside, you might perceive the essence of God as rules, regulations, and punishment. In many ways, God is a very serious and depressive adult instead of a cannon balling in the Jacuzzi kind of person. One of the problems with that image is it sharply contrasts with what God says about Himself and His kingdom. In the Gospel of Matthew 19:14, Jesus asserts,
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
The spiritual discipline (practice) of joy starts with our grasping the fact that joy is intrinsically part of God’s essence (character). More importantly, it starts with us asking God to fill us with His bubbling/cannon balling in the Jacuzzi kind of joy.
Joy is intrinsically part of God’s essence. Therefore, God, whose essence is joy, commands us through this letter of Paul’s to the Philippians to practice joy. The problem is we grow up with specific statements that we classify as God’s commandments and we almost never classify joy as a commandment.
We find it very difficult to recognize and understand the consequences of breaking God’s commandment to be joyful. The apostle Paul states the commandment to be joyful. Moreover, he implies a couple of hurtful consequences when we break the commandment to be joyful. Paul implies that when we break the commandment to be joyful anxiety and turmoil (lack of peace) creep in. In other words, Paul suggests that when we treat joy as a suggestion instead of a commandment, we leave the door of our emotions open for the enemy of our souls (the Devil). I don’t want to blame everything on the Devil. But, if God’s essence is light, justice, holiness, love, joy, etc. The Devil’s, on the other hand, is darkness, injustice, unholiness, hatred, depression, etc. The Devil’s desire is for us not to be joyful (depressive). He does not necessarily cause depression. But His desire is for us not to practice the spiritual discipline of joy and dwell in anxiety that typically leads to different levels of depression. A statistic says,
An average person’s anxiety is focused: 40% ON THINGS THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN; 30% ON THINGS ABOUT THE PAST THAT CAN’T BE CHANGED; 12% ON THINGS LIKE CRITICISM BY OTHERS, MOSTLY UNTRUE; 10% ON HEALTH WHICH GETS WORSE WITH STRESS; AND 8% ON PROBLEMS THAT WILL BE FACED.
The apostle Paul implies that the practice of joy helps to close the window of our soul to anxiety and turmoil. More importantly, Paul affirms that to fulfill the commandment to rejoice (practice joy) will cause us to experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds…(v.7). Paul implies that to practice the spiritual discipline (commandment) of joy will not get rid of the crisis and disappointments of life but will create a shield to help us navigate through them. What is in our life that we desperately need to experience the peace that exceeds anything we can understand?
The apostle Paul tells the Philippians that the practice of joy is to understand that the essence of God is joy and, therefore, He commands us to be joyful. Moreover, Paul implies to the Philippians that they (we) need to learn to constantly build (fill) our reservoir of joy.
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think of things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (v. 8).
The practice of joy! It appears to me that Paul implies to the Philippians that there are a number of small things in our everyday life that can build (fill) our reservoir of joy. Things that we sometimes despise because we fix our eyes/thoughts/focus on the big things in order to be joyful (e.g. I will be joyful when…..). You see, Paul was in prison and people were beating him up so, apparently, there were not many things to make him joyful. Paul had to learn how to fix his eyes on small little things to help build up his reservoir of joy to close the gap to anxiety and depression.
The question is what are the small joyful situations God causes in our life that we consider not important?
As mentioned earlier, they can be as simple as to eat a meal that brings you joy, a good cup of coffee looking at the snow falling outside, getting a C+ when we were expecting an F, watching a good movie, someone laughing at a joke that was not so funny, cannon balling in the Jacuzzi, etc. Crucial to the practice of joy is to start pausing and intentionally investing in those moments and reflecting on what a gracious God He is to have thought of these small moments of joy. Moments that build up our reservoir of joy. When our reservoir of joy is filled to the top we close the window of our soul (emotions) to anxiety and depression. We get strength to face crises and disappointments during this journey called our life in 2010.
