Almost seven years ago, I penned this blog on fighting for joy.
Here are the highlights:
- Joy isn't a reaction to circumstances; it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. In this way, it should be considered a virtue instead of an emotion. It is a tendency, or disposition, toward the good. According to Peter Kreeft, "Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self."
- We can foster more joy in our lives through prayer, sacrifice, and curiosity - wonder - born out of gratitude.
- The enemy will come to kill and steal and destroy our joy (John 10:10). Therefore, we have to fight for it - finding joy, keeping it, giving it to others.
If seven additional years of living have taught me anything, it is that I underestimated just how much this fight for joy would be the fight of my life.
Life is really hard and filled with suffering; it is good, though, and also filled with blessings.
Finding, keeping, and giving joy requires vigilance in prayer, self-care, and being aware.
This fight for joy will necessitate faith and demand hope. Faith in a God who promises that the best is always yet to come, if not in this life then assuredly in the next. This fight for joy demands hope that this promised future will come to fruition.
And, faith and hope depend on love. Not on our love, thankfully; our love is fickle and fleeting. Our faith and hope rely on God's perfect love. This love - willing the good of another - is what makes our faith in Him and our hope in a better future more than fantasy.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (John 3:16).
God's deep, abiding, abounding love for us compelled Him to take on our human flesh, enter creation, and teach us "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6) in order to reunite us to Himself.
He testifies to His love for us by taking on the punishment for our sins on the cross. And, His love for us was so powerful that not even sin and death could overcome it. He rose from the dead and lives again and promises those who believe in Him this same partaking in eternal life.
Jesus is who He says He is. He keeps His promises. He loves us - you, me, everyone.
As we enter these final few days of Advent, enter into the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Nativity. The prophecies of the Old Testament were all fulfilled - perfectly, entirely, unexpectedly. God comes to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, not as a warrior king, but behind enemy lines, as a baby, on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, into a family of low status.
As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage” (Mere Christianity, 1952).
Be on the lookout for God's surprises in paradoxical ways. We actually get more joy out of giving than receiving. Like Mary, we become who we were created to be in the measure that we both align ourselves to God's plan for us and freely give ourselves to others. Like Joseph, we may be called to our vocation in a way that is quite unlike what we had in mind. Like John the Baptist, we must decrease and point others to Christ so that He can increase. Like Elizabeth and Zechariah, we need to maintain faith that our God of love gives us reason, even when it seems to be beyond reason, for hope.
Our Lord conspires - meaning that He breathes with us - for us to take part in His story of salvation. He plans for us to play a key role, albeit a supporting and most likely conventional one, in HIStory.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ desires more joy for us than we could ask for or even imagine.
Keep fighting for it...the best is yet to come!
