In
yesterday’s blog post I shared that in 2013 I’m going to attempt A Year of
Living Joyfully. As a Christmas gift my daughter gave me a year long plan of
Bible verses to meditate upon and projects to do that will point me toward Joy.
I also shared that as a life-long sufferer from profound sadness (depression?)
I was looking forward to see if this pursuit of Joy might turn out to be the
antidote for which I’ve always longed.
As I prepare for the official kick off of A Year of Living Joyfully next week on January 1 I’m spending this week thinking about Joy. What is it? Why is important? Is there something to Joy that’s more profound than just “feeling good?” Here are a couple of things I came across yesterday.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Surprised by Joy, wrote that Joy is “an
unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other
satisfaction." Lewis used Joy in a very specific sense. He did not think
of Joy as just a synonym happiness, as many of us do. For him Joy was the
deepest of all desires that could never be satisfied by any of the pleasures of
this world – it as an other-worldly quality that can only be satisfied by an
intimate encounter with God.
Another way of looking at it is
that the desire for Joy was hardwired into humans at the time of our creation.
It is part of being in the Image of God that our deepest longings are not for
this world but are for God.
The 13th Century
theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote something similar, “Man cannot live without
joy.” The desire for Joy is part of what it means to be human. But Aquinas also
went on with the profound observation that when people do not find Joy from
their relationship with God, then are then prone to start searching for Joy
from the things of the world, things that can never really satisfy. “When man
is deprived is true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to
carnal pleasures.”
I know exactly what Aquinas was
saying. As I’ve previously written, in my best moments, I’ve tried to treat my
sadness with a variety of positive means – nutrition, exercise, meditation,
spiritual disciplines, counseling, and medication. But there have been many
times, when the sadness as been unbearable, in some of my worst moments, when I
have turned to “carnal pleasures” in an attempt to escape – food, drink,
unhealthy relationships, entertainment, to name a few. The results have almost
always been dreadful.
This desire, no more than that,
this need
for Joy is not optional. It is a God-given thing designed to drive people, to
drive me, toward him. Other things will not satisfy, not for long. It is the
way people and the world were designed from the beginning. Ultimate Joy is only
found him.
These are some of my thoughts today
about what real Joy is and where it is found. What do you think about Joy?
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