Joy— What’s the Real Thing?

The world’s version of battle and joy is striving and indulgence.  Push hard, and then reward yourself with a little something.  Work like a dog, then buy yourself a big-screen TV.  It’s a cheap counterfeit of battle and a cheap counterfeit of joy.  John Eldredge, Walking with God, p.114

As I read those words this morning, the phrase “a cheap counterfeit of joy” struck me.  I thought, “If a big-screen TV is a cheap counterfeit, then what’s the real thing?”

“What’s the real thing?” when talking about joy strikes me as a very important question, perhaps one of the most important questions we can ever ask about life. There are few people who would say that they wouldn’t want more joy in their life.  Most would agree that they actively seek for joy. 

And yet, if we are asked to define it, say in black and white what joy is, we start to stumble for words.  Joy is, well, you know, it’s being really really happy, and uh….

It struck me that it might be hard to consistently find something that I couldn’t even define.  I decided that if joy was important to me (and it is!), I need a useful definition of it, one that would reliably guide me to real joy.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines joy as:

1. Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.
2. The expression or manifestation of such feeling.
3. A source or an object of pleasure or satisfaction: their only child, their pride and joy.

Well, that definition is certainly a little vague. In fact, it doesn’t help me at all to actually find joy. 

What really is joy? When I use the word “joy” vs. the use word happiness, or pleasure, or satisfaction, what do I have in mind?  Or in other words, what is unique, what is special, what is precious to me when I conceive of joy?

After reflection, I think the difference is that compared to mere pleasure, joy fully fills & joy gives life.  Joy, in my mind, is something that is more than superficial, more than just one more emotional high.  Joy can penetrate and fill all the deepest recesses of my soul, every nook and cranny, every hidden room, every locked closet. 

But beyond its ability to fully fill, joy also gives life.  Joy is a not only a penetrating flood, but a transforming one.  Joy has spiritual substance, a spiritual weight (as C. S. Lewis might say) and transformative energy.  Pleasure is like a flashlight beam— it can switch on and off in an instant, but once it’s off there is no lasting effect, nothing to show that it was ever on. Joy is something that is like a roaring fire, that gives both light and heat, that you can see and feel.  Joy is life-giving, life-nourishing, life-restoring.

With that definition in mind, what brings true joy to my soul?  I can think of only one thing: love.  Deep, true, pure love, being given and received, between me and God, and between me and my family & friends.  I can’t think of anything else in my life or anything else that can happen to me that has the same transformative depth and power as love.

Pretty simple, when you think about it.  Want joy?  Focus your life on giving and receiving love.  Maybe Jesus was on to something when he said in Luke 10:27 to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.  Maybe I should be doing that, today.

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