“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”– John 13:9
What do you think of when you hear these words:
Happiness?
Pleasure?
Joy?
Are they the same? Do they conjure the same thoughts, feelings, and needs? Of these three, which would you most desire in your life?
The great writer, C.S. Lewis wrote time and again about joy. Even his memoir, one of my favorite books, is titled, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. In it, he writes,
“Joy must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again … I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is.”
When my husband returned from a parish mission trip to Guatemala, several things made impressions on him. He witnessed extreme poverty, a health crisis, and great love for our priest in every town the group visited. What struck Ken most, though, was the joy the people felt. It was tangible and contagious. No matter how poor, how sick, how deprived they were, every person he met was filled with joy which stemmed from their deep faith and appreciation for what they had.
