When the downstairs cat and the battery alarm on my pager woke me up at 3 am this morning, I went back to bed with the ear buds in listening to my local news and information station. The news was on and the lead story was that this was the two year anniversary of the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Oh joy.
Hold it. Today is the Sunday of Joy in Advent. What a bizarre coincidence.
Along with loneliness, Joy has been another one of those strange curiosities of mine for the past few years. The term does hold a number of personal traumas including my mean late aunt, Joy, whose most common statement to me was "Hush."
There is the suggestion that even if you do not feel like rocking around the Christmas tree, or decking the halls, there can still be joy. The Christmas spirit of the secular carols does not necessarily fill the emptiness.
Nevertheless, Joy is a foreign concept to many of us in the driven 21st century. Many of us are busy and chasing many objectives and goals and do not necessarily reflect on joy. We tend to reflect on happiness, which is not the same as Joy. Joy is an attitude and happiness is a feeling.
Feelings do rise and fall. We can be happy some moments and depressed, sad, or mad at other moments.
Many people are just not happy and have good reason to be unhappy due to tragedy, disappointment, abuse, and pain. Furthermore, despite all of the material wealth and achievement, people are still not happy and asking "Is this all there is?" They do not have joy.
I have concluded for the moment that as an attitude, Joy has a close association with Gratitude.
With joy there is some sense of fulfillment in the moment even in the midst of bleakness.
Joy is stronger some moments than others. It depends on the moment and what is happening. Joy can be overwhelming to the point of tears, and it can be enough to keep someone who is feeling hopeless from entertaining or following through on suicide.
Joy is highly existential. What may be joy for me may not necessarily be joy for you. A person who is overwhelmed in pain and grief is not necessarily going to appreciate someone else's joy.
Joy is an individual responsibility. It is a choice. We can dwell on our issues, problems, and trials,
but Joy does require us to reflect on what we have and what could be worse.
The spiritual joy of the message of Christmas is that there is forgiveness and salvation. Christmas calls us to look at our spiritual condition and offers us the opportunity of joy despite how bad we feel about ourselves and our sinful condition.
There are still no easy answers about why a young man with mental illness decided to kill his mother and then massacre a group of innocent first-graders, some school staff, and then himself. Pondering it makes me want to hug my kids right now, and I am feeling gratitude that my wife and I have children and that God has kept them safe.
However, today, I can have joy because God loved me first to send the baby to the manger, grow up to die on the cross in order to save me from my sin and give me eternal life.
Hold it. Today is the Sunday of Joy in Advent. What a bizarre coincidence.
Along with loneliness, Joy has been another one of those strange curiosities of mine for the past few years. The term does hold a number of personal traumas including my mean late aunt, Joy, whose most common statement to me was "Hush."
There is the suggestion that even if you do not feel like rocking around the Christmas tree, or decking the halls, there can still be joy. The Christmas spirit of the secular carols does not necessarily fill the emptiness.
Nevertheless, Joy is a foreign concept to many of us in the driven 21st century. Many of us are busy and chasing many objectives and goals and do not necessarily reflect on joy. We tend to reflect on happiness, which is not the same as Joy. Joy is an attitude and happiness is a feeling.
Feelings do rise and fall. We can be happy some moments and depressed, sad, or mad at other moments.
Many people are just not happy and have good reason to be unhappy due to tragedy, disappointment, abuse, and pain. Furthermore, despite all of the material wealth and achievement, people are still not happy and asking "Is this all there is?" They do not have joy.
I have concluded for the moment that as an attitude, Joy has a close association with Gratitude.
With joy there is some sense of fulfillment in the moment even in the midst of bleakness.
Joy is stronger some moments than others. It depends on the moment and what is happening. Joy can be overwhelming to the point of tears, and it can be enough to keep someone who is feeling hopeless from entertaining or following through on suicide.
Joy is highly existential. What may be joy for me may not necessarily be joy for you. A person who is overwhelmed in pain and grief is not necessarily going to appreciate someone else's joy.
Joy is an individual responsibility. It is a choice. We can dwell on our issues, problems, and trials,
but Joy does require us to reflect on what we have and what could be worse.
The spiritual joy of the message of Christmas is that there is forgiveness and salvation. Christmas calls us to look at our spiritual condition and offers us the opportunity of joy despite how bad we feel about ourselves and our sinful condition.
There are still no easy answers about why a young man with mental illness decided to kill his mother and then massacre a group of innocent first-graders, some school staff, and then himself. Pondering it makes me want to hug my kids right now, and I am feeling gratitude that my wife and I have children and that God has kept them safe.
However, today, I can have joy because God loved me first to send the baby to the manger, grow up to die on the cross in order to save me from my sin and give me eternal life.
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