Jitterbugging for Jesus

The grands are my bundles of joy, which ain’t to say that they always make me happy. Just yesterday, Rhys-the-Terrible threw a mini-basketball in my face, rearranging my glasses. In that moment I was not happy with him, and was made unhappier still by the joy he seemed to take in PawPaw being whacked smack in the face with his mini-basketball.

But it all amounted to a fleeting moment of unhappiness that couldn’t begin to diminish the joy of having my grandson Rhys in my life.

All of which brings me to joy and happiness, and love and sorrow.

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We’d never know joy in the fullest measure if we didn’t know sorrow. And the more we know suffering and love, the deeper the roots of joy extend.
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Being the theology nerd that I am, I’ve long had this quiet fascination with the likenesses and differences between spiritual joy and happiness. In seminary I once wrote a lengthy paper on what the ancient saints and traditional “doctors of the church” had to say about joy and happiness and sorrow, and the interplay of all three.

The blame for this quirky interest lies with the Apostle Paul, with his list of “the fruits of the spirit” cited in his letter to the Galatians–followers with whom he was quite unhappy, by the way, judging from the harsh tone of the epistle.

“The fruit of the spirit,” Paul wrote in a more gracious part of his unhappy letter, “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.”

I go through that list in mind several times a day as a way of keeping tabs on how I’m doing in terms of loving others, embracing joy, being at peace with myself and others. I continue through the whole list, also monitoring my patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

If I had any self-control and a lot more patience, not to mention faithfulness and other stuff, maybe I’d make the grade as a spiritual “A student,” or at least a high-C pupil, maybe.

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My aforementioned fascination in the difference between joy and happiness began one day long ago when I realized that “happiness” was not included in Paul’s fruits of the spirit. But “joy” was high on the list, second only to “love,” which came in at Number 1.

Maybe joy ranked, and happiness didn’t, because joy is embedded within our hearts and souls. That which brings us momentary joy can certainly be that which brings us fleeting happiness, but what makes us happy doesn’t necessarily equate to joy.

Because it lies as deep within us as the roots of an evergreen, joy is living in grace, gratitude and peace. And one can live in grace and gratitude and peace with God even through times of enormous pain and suffering.

Sorrow, not happiness, is the flip side of joy. We’d never know joy in the fullest measure if we didn’t know sorrow. And the more we know suffering and love, the deeper the roots of joy extend.

Jesus connects love and joy in John 15: 1-17, where he talks about his being the “true vine” and our being the branches and urges us to abide in him as he abides in us in the Father’s love. “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete,” he says in verse 17.

The power of Jesus as a liberator was in the power of the joy he brought to masses of people who were denied joy in their oppression. In his superb book Jesus Before Christianity, Albert Nolan writes:

“Joy was in fact the most characteristic result of all Jesus’ activity amongst the poor and the oppressed. The meals he had with them were festive celebrations, parties. Jesus obviously had a way of ensuring that people enjoyed themselves at these gatherings. The Pharisees were scandalized by this . . . The poor and the oppressed and anyone else who was not too hung up on ‘respectability’ found the company of Jesus a liberating experience of joy” (pp. 50-51).

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Relishing an ice cream cone for five minutes can make anyone in the world happy for five minutes. A flush debit card on payday may bring happiness until the bills are paid. Many things can bring us fleeting joy, in the sense of happiness, in many ways every day.

But spiritual joy—like the love we have for family and friends—endures.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name.
For the Lord is good; 
his steadfast love endures for ever,
 and his faithfulness to all generations.

— Psalm 100