One day last week, I took a break from my work to take a long walk with my dog along the shore of White Bear Lake.  As you know, we were blessed with an extended winter this year, and it was the first day for a little while when the sun had come out here in our neck of the woods.  I took my time, allowing my dog to sniff every bush and tree and inviting the sun’s rays to seep into the pores of my body.  It felt decadent, and I realized how, for the past several weeks, I had allowed the cloudy and cold weather to plunge me into somewhat of a funk.  I thought about the joy I felt as I walked in the sunshine.

Joy is an emotion comprised of feelings of happiness, contentment, and harmony. It is that sense of being one with God, oneself and the world.  It differs from general happiness in that it is not caused by a particular event and certainly not by the acquisition of more stuff.  Rather, it comes from within.  Joy is the emotion that makes life worth living because it resonates with our core identity. 

But joy also can be so elusive.  Most of us feel it fleetingly as I did yesterday as I walked beside the lake.  But as we know here in Minnesota, not all days are sunny and not all days go just the way we wish.  So what’s the trick to experiencing joy consistently, day after day?  How may we live joyful lives without our joy being so dependent upon the whims of the weather or any other temporary condition of our lives?

The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote: “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

There’s so much truth in that statement.  So Irish, but also so true!  Joy is consistently found when we devote ourselves to something good and beautiful that is beyond ourselves.  Joy is found, consistently found, when we wear ourselves out for the good of others and for the sake of this beautiful but broken world.  This, by the way, is also a fairly good description of living in the Way of Christ Jesus.  It is what he taught; what he lived.  It is a life of sacrificial love to which we disciples of Jesus are called.

We come to church week after week for a variety of reasons. At least part of my commitment to the St. John’s fellowship of faithful friends is tied to the joy I feel when serving others, and it is at church that I am reminded of who I am and the life to which God has called me.  Of course, Jesus commands us “to love others as we love ourselves”, but the best kept secret of the Christian faith is that when we actually live those words, we can’t help but allow God’s joy to fill the pores of our bodies and minds and souls.  

~Father Art