As you enter my apartment I have a plaque that reads – ‘find joy in the journey’. That phrase brings to my mind a number of thoughts: we talk a great deal about happiness but not so much about joy, we are the subject of the phrase though not spoken – it is our opportunity/responsibility/’duty’ to discover the joy, and life is a journey.
Joy should be the focus in all 3 – (we) finding, seeking joy, life as a journey. Do we even know what joy is? One of Webster’s definitions says, :”…the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” Fairly shallow and limiting. Another definitions: “… to experience great pleasure or delight.” Another one reads: “…something that gives pleasure or happiness.” Does anyone else see what I’m seeing?
These definitions are all ‘feeling’ based and external. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with feeling, but when we speak of ‘joy’ it should be something internal, something of eternal significance as well. The more I read and study the more I think that ‘joy’ is an eternal concept and so we should look to scripture to find definitions. I found:
“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the
morning.” Psalms 30:5
Actually the Psalms are full of examples of joy and what joy brings such as Psalm 16:11, 28:7 and 34:8.But it is Psalm 119 that tells us: “…joyful are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord.”
Couple these examples in Psalms and in other places in the Old Testament with Galatians 5:22 in which Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit. This is incredibly more profound than the superficiality of self only. Joy is a force that strengthens us as we go about growing in the things of the Lord and living in this world. We can go far beyond mere happiness and bask in the glow of joy. We can become a hand extended to others that the joy of the Lord IS our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
