Joy to the World…..Joy to (fill in your name)!
If Marie Kondo were to metaphorically have Christmas in her hand, I’m sure she’d say that Christmas “brings her joy”. The chestnuts roasting on an open fire (or the s’mores made on the stove), the glimmering lights (or enjoying your neighbors’ lights), the homemade cookies (or eating the dough before they make it to the oven), the Balsam Hill Christmas decor (or the Hallmark Christmas movies featuring them)....however picturesque Christmas 2020 may or may not be, Christmas is full of hope, peace, and joy.
Joy - exactly what I need. What you need. What we need. What the world needs now.
Though somehow, as I’ve been singing the Christmas carol “Joy the World” this December, it’s seemed empty and abstract. To help regain its meaning, I tried to personalize it in my heart, claiming “joy to Esther, joy to my family, joy to those who are hurting, joy to our country….and yes, joy to the world”.
Having just finished the book The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the concept of joy. Featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu along with Douglas Abrams, the book explores the concept in depth.
My cliff note highlights:
Joy does not mean a lack of sorrow or pain:
“Discovering more joy does not, I’m sorry to say save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily, too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“...it is how we face all of the things that seem to be negative in our lives that determines the kind of person we become.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“...The Archbishop greets almost every new experience with the word wonderful, and it is indeed that ability to see wonder, surprise, possibility in each experience and each encounter that is a core aspect of joy”. (page 241)
Joy means turning our eyes away from ourselves:
“Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness…” - The Dalai Lama
“...our greatest joy is when we seek to do good for others….We are wired to be caring for the other and generous to one another. We shrivel when we are not able to interact. I mean that is part of the reason why solitary confinement is such a horrendous punishment. We depend on the other in order for us to be fully who we are….” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“This God (the Trinity) is community, fellowship. Being created by this God, we are created in order to flourish. And we flourish in community. When we become self-centered, turning in on ourselves, as sure as anything, we are going to find one day a deep, deep, deep frustration”. - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Joy is cultivated further by humor and laughter:
Deep connection between humility and humor….ability to laugh at ourselves and our situations….“Humor, like humility, comes from the same root word for humanity: humus.”
“Laugh at yourself and don’t be so pompous and serious. If you start looking for the humor in life, you will find it. You will stop asking, Why me? And start recognizing that life happens to all of us. It makes everything easier, including your ability to accept others and accept all that life will bring.” (Page 222)
Though we cannot manufacture joy, we can practice rhythms to cultivate it. As a Christian who believes the Christmas story is true, that Jesus came as a baby by supernatural birth, was born without a home with no crib for a bed, sacrificed His life on the cross so that my sin could be forgiven and I could be reconciled with God in this life and the next - this brings me life transforming, abundant joy. It can bring you joy too. And yes, joy to the world. Let every heart prepare Him room!