Choosing Joy

In the Gospel of John, Jesus sums up pretty much everything by saying, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). He said it at the supper that he knew was the last one he’d have a mouth to eat. Happiness turns up more or less where you’d expect it to –a good marriage, a rewarding job, a pleasant vacation. Joy, on the other hand, is as notoriously unpredictable as the one who bequeaths it. [1]


There is difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is quick and momentary. Something can make you happy but a few seconds later the feeling is gone. Joy is more than this. Regardless, both joy and happiness seem to be tied to the choices we make in life.

You are constantly facing choices. The question is whether you choose for God or for your own doubting self. You know what the right choice is, but your emotions, passions, and feelings keep suggesting you choose the self-rejecting way.
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence."[2]

The root choice is to trust at all times that God is with you and will give you what you most need. Your self-rejecting emotions might say, “It isn’t going to work. I’m still suffering the same anguish I did six months ago. I will probably fall back into the old depressive patterns of acting and reacting. I haven’t really changed.” And on and on.

It is hard not to listen to these voices. Still, you know that these are not God’s voice. God says to you, “I love you. I am with you. I want to see you come closer to me and experience my joy and my peace. I want to give you a new heart and a new spirit. I want you to speak with my mouth, see with my eyes, hear with my ears, touch with my hands. All that is mine is now yours. Just trust me and let me be your God!”

This is the voice you want to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice, not just once in a while but rather every moment of the day. It is you who decides what you think and what you do. You control your actions and your behavior. You have the choice to choose God. You can think yourself in a depression, you can talk yourself into low self-esteem, you can act in a self-rejecting way. But you always have a choice to think, speak and act in the name of God and so move toward the Light!!!

As you continue through this advent season, you can choose to remember this time as either a failed attempt to be reborn or you can choose to remember it as a precious time when God began new things in you that needed to be brought to completion. Your future and even the future of the church depends on how we choose to remember our past. Choose for truth of what you know. Do not let your still anxious emotions distance you from God. As you keep choosing God, your emotions will gradually give up their rebellion and be converted to the truth in you.

Remember that you are held safe. You are loved. You are protected. You are in communion with God and with those whom God has sent you. What is of God will last. It belongs to the eternal life. Choose it, and it will be yours.[3]
[1] Frederick Buechner: “Joy,” Wishful Thinking.
[2] Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved.
[3] -----, The Inner Voice of Love.

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