Joy, redefined
Sometimes, you learn something new and it seemingly changes everything.
That’s how I felt when I was deepening my understanding of Joy last advent season.
As Kimee and I were preparing for Illuminating Advent, I was tasked with the ‘light’ side of advent— inviting people to reflect on their current understanding of the four traditional themes of advent, offer them a deepened reflection of the theme, and express our new-found depth with breath and body as we would move on our mats. Years ago, the idea of Peace was invigorated as I dove into it full force for a Christmas offering, completely shifting how I now use and view the word. As I dove into joy, my heart and eyes widened as I received what I was reading and studying. Joy came alive in new ways.
Joy vs Happiness
We often look at joy as ‘joy vs happiness’. Perhaps we have all been told the classics that ‘happiness is surface level and joy is deeper’, or ‘true joy only found in Christ’. Perhaps we’ve been told that ‘happiness is skin deep while joy is felt in our soul’. Or maybe the two have been used interchangeably throughout your life. My prior understanding of Joy had been this, pulled from the pages of an advent resource I made years ago:
Joy is an attitude God’s people adopt, not because of happy circumstances, but because of their hope in God’s love and promise. The Joy of God’s people is not determined by their struggles but by their future destiny. This is why the birth of Jesus was announced as Good News that brings great Joy. The early Christian communities were known for being full of Joy— even when they were persecuted. When you believe that Jesus’ love has overcome death itself, joy becomes reasonable in the darkness of circumstances. This doesn’t mean you suppress sorrows or laments— it means you acknowledge your pain while also making the choice to trust Jesus.
As I read this now, honestly, I find myself cringing a bit.
I read the words that feel like they could be ripped from any classic Christmas devotional this time of year and I feel like it’s missing something real. It’s missing heart. It’s missing our lived experiences. It’s offering all the platitudes of what we ‘should’ say about joy, but missing any rooting into the real lived experiences of joy that we have— especially the ones we have when we are going through a hard time— that make joy so much more than a ‘because we have Jesus’ moment.
Redefining Joy
As I was seeking information on joy last year, I went to search out more…
I remembered the book sitting on my shelf, ‘Atlas of the Heart’ by Brené Brown, and how it is filled with incredible definitions and examples of all sorts of words we use daily. I pulled it off the ‘red’ shelf framed by other books of similar colours, flipped through the pages before going to the table of contents, then opened up the book to page 202. There I read about happiness and joy and found myself simply blown away by the words on the page… finally, language to express the depth of joy that I knew was possible when I stepped out of the bubble of safe, stable, palatable Christian explanations and into the real world of experience.
“Joy is sudden, unexpected, short-lasting, and high-intensity. It’s characterized by a connection with others, or with God, nature, or the universe. Joy expands our thinking and attention, and it fills us with a sense of freedom and abandon.”
Whoa.
Joy EXPANDS our thinking and attention. It FILLS US with a sense of freedom and abandon.
I continued reading…
“The Greek word for joy, which is Chairo. Chairo was described by the ancient Greeks as the “culmination of being” and the “good mood of the soul.” Robertson writes, “Chairo is something, the ancient Greeks tell us, that is found only in God and comes with virtue and wisdom. It isn’t a beginner’s virtue; it comes as the culmination. They say its opposite is not sadness, but fear.”
Only found in God and comes with virtue and wisdom.
The opposite is not sadness, but fear.
My mind is being blown here.
As I continued reading down the page, I found myself zeroing in on this passage:
“... while experiencing joy, we don’t lose ourselves, we become more truly ourselves. He suggests that with joy, colors seem brighter, physical movements feel freer and easier, and smiling happens involuntarily. Some researchers even describe spontaneous weeping as part of the overwhelming experience of joy.”
I devoured the paragraph again and again and again.
As I wondered what else had been said about Joy, I found Brené Brown referenced joy in her book also sitting on my shelf, Dare to Lead, which talked about how Joy is the most vulnerable emotion.
Experiencing Joy
Joy began sparking in new ways as I considered my own recent experiences of the year and how a moment of true, pure joy was found in an experience of collective effervescence in a sold out stadium of people singing along to Taylor Swift in handmade costumes, light up wristbands, sparkles and glitter, after a season of wild hardship led to that moment in time. Tears. Singing. Dancing. Being my most true self. Letting the experience of joy wash over me as a cleansing exhale to a season of change, unknown, and death. They say that witnessing death changes you, and as much as that is true, witnessing joy in such a pure form changes you, too.
Authentic Living
I often say that being who you are honours God.
It’s this idea that fully living into who you are— who God made you to be— brings God delight and joy. In all our silly quirks and things we find delight in, from Taylor Swift to Christmas, from loving a specific colour or feeling like you come alive when in the kitchen, to anything and everything in between, when you live into those things that make you come alive, you’re honouring the one who placed those delights within you. I can just imagine God experiencing such joy when we experience joy. I can picture all of creation smiling with God as we discover what brings us joy and lean into those experiences not as escapism or frivolous, but as intentional moments where we can acknowledge our connection with God and allow them to build our capacity for resilience, to be acts of resistance in a world that profits from keeping us joy-less, and that lead us towards wonder and delight, which lead us back to God.
Joy in Jesus
The definition of Joy, as described in Atlas of the Heart based on research, is an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation. To me, that sounds like what people are trying to describe when they say that ‘Joy is found in Jesus’. It’s not just a plateau we can’t pinpoint, something that feels vague or that can fit nicely in a 2-line christmas card…
It’s vulnerable.
It’s authentic.
It’s the moments we want to savour and linger in that feel all too brief.
It’s brave moments when fear flees for even a second.
It’s the ‘most joyous news the world has ever heard’.
That however you understand Jesus as saviour, Joy is found in His arrival because His arrival sparks within us our connection to God, the pleasure we find in God and that God finds in us, and the appreciation that all of creation speaks to God and the sacredness found within all.
That sounds like joy.
If you’d like to explore Joy this advent season, join me for Joy To The World, a 5-week virtual soul care yoga series where we will dive into this beautiful topic and explore joy as the multifaceted experience it truly is.
