Comedian and cultural observer Jerry Seinfeld once said that the problem with television commercials is that everybody in television commercials is doing something more fun than what the viewer is doing. “For example,” Seinfeld continues, “I saw a commercial for soda the other day. Soda! A simple carbonated beverage. But, based upon this commercial, one would have thought that this can of soda was the long-awaited solution to all conditions of human misery. Forget about love. Forget about family. Forget about the pursuit of truth and knowledge. What people really need is this can of Mountain Dew. In the commercial, people are jumping, laughing, flying through the air, diving into the ocean.”
Seinfeld said that, while watching the commercial, he looked down at the beverage that he was holding at the time.
“Wow,” he concluded, “maybe I just don’t have enough ice in mine.”
It is most certainly true that one of the advertising industry’s greatest allies is a desire that all human beings seem to share: specifically, the desire to increase our level of joy. Advertisers know that, if they can create the illusion that their product is somehow linked to the accumulation of joy, we might be a bit more inclined to buy it.
But the human hunger for joy is not simply an issue for advertisers. It is also an issue for believers in Jesus Christ. I say that because, in the New Testament, we are told that we are to be carriers of a “joy unspeakable,” a joy so relentless, so authentic, so profound that it defies articulation. In a world where there always seems to be plenty of suffering and hardship, people of faith are called to be agents of unspeakable joy.
That fact leads me to this personal confession: I simply do not feel that I am joyful enough. When I say that, I am not employing a false-modesty to heighten the winsomeness of this blog post. Rather, it is an honest confession. I do not feel that I am growing sufficiently in my experience of the kind of joy that Scripture describes. There is too much grumpiness in my daily demeanor. Too much melancholy. Too much fixating on the things that are inconvenient and difficult. Too much complaining. Too much cynicism. Too much rushing to criticism before seeing the positives. Too much of these things and not enough joy.
Therefore, when I spent some devotional time this morning with the 30th Psalm, I found myself personally convicted. Psalm 30 is a psalm drenched with a spirit of joy. It is certainly true that the Psalms run the entire gamut of human emotions. Some psalms are angry. Some psalms are sad. Some psalms are peaceful. But Psalm 30 is abundantly joyful, painting a portrait of a God who has the wherewithal to bring hope and joy even into the nooks and crannies of our hardships.
“Weeping may tarry through the night,” are the words of the psalmist in the 30th Psalm, “But joy comes with the morning.” That, of course, is the psalmist’s poetic way of articulating the truth that our weeping will not have the final word over the spirit that occupies our soul. Even in our nights of weeping, proclaims the psalmist, the joy of being in relationship with the living God does not fade away. It is always there, ready to be rediscovered in a way that bright and fresh like the morning.
“You have turned my weeping into dancing,” continues the psalmist. “You have taken off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” (Sackcloth, by the way, was an uncomfortable garment that people often wore to indicate their condition of grieving or penitence. It was a garment that provided a tangible reinforcement of one’s emotional pain. But here, the psalmist speaks of a God who expands our wardrobe.) “You have taken off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, so that my soul longs to praise you and will not be silent.”
What is it that the psalmist is describing here? He is describing the joy unspeakable that the New Testament would also describe centuries later. He is describing the joy that cannot be produced by a can of soda or a performance enhancing drug (no matter what a television commercial might suggest). He is describing the unique joy that can only be found in an ever-deepening relationship with the One who created the universe, the One who longs for intimacy with human souls.
This joy is something more than transitory happiness. Happiness, after all, is circumstance-dependent. It is there one minute and gone the next. Authentic joy, on the other hand—the kind of joy that the psalmist describes—is not circumstance-dependent but God-dependent. It is a durable condition of spiritual vibrancy that emerges from the steadfastness of God’s grace, mercy, and love. It is a joy that can occupy a receptive soul even when the circumstances are unhappy.
But how do I make myself available to the kind of joy that the psalmist describes? How do I—how do WE—grow in that joy so that it becomes a more substantive portion of our daily living?
Children have so much to teach us in that regard. That is part of the reason why I love to hang around the church during Vacation Bible School week (which I did last week). During that week, I sit in the sanctuary, watching and listening as the children gather for the opening program each day. They don’t walk into the sanctuary, they run in, as though they look upon even the sanctuary as a fun and playful place to be. They don’t just mumble the songs, they SING them, with laughter and motions, as though they believed that they should be happy about what they are singing.
Children know how to play. They know how to celebrate God with profligate exuberance. Joy seems to be as natural to them as breathing, and I want that kind of childlike joy in my life.
So, my commitment today is not to grow UP but to grow DOWN—down into the kind of childlikeness that will enable me to play with greater abandon; to laugh as though my life depended on it; to sing as though I truly believed that God were listening; to pray as though I really believed that God were sitting beside me; to travel to the land of make-believe whenever the circumstances require a more joyful sense of vision that can only come from some other place; and to live as though I were preparing for something eternal.
How is your joy quotient these days? How is your childlikeness?
We all need to discover more joy in our lives. Each day truly is a gift from God and I believe God wants us to enjoy each day. So many times in my life, I focus on the drudgery of what I’m doing - work , errands, etc. Over the past several months I have tried to start each day thanking God that I can crawl out of my bed to start my day when there are so many people who can’t do that. I’m learning to really appreciate the world that God has created.
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in heart, down in my heart…I’ve got the joy, joy, joy joy down in my heart, down in my heart to stay.
If only it was to stay.
Eric, you describe a condition in which we long for, in which we strive for, and which we miss when it’s staring us right in the face. We make it seem like a hard thing to acquire. We search and search for the Holy Grail. But, residing inside us is that inner child that runs to greet the next fun thing.
Now, if we, like you have suggested,
try to grow down into the realms of simplicity, innocence and non-judgement, our joy will come alive.
I am reminded of the movie Cocoon where the old folks turned back into children and went out to play ‘kick the can’. That’s what it is you know. To enter the Kingdom of heaven we must become as little children. God wants to play a game of heavenly kick the can with us. He wants us to laugh and sing and feel the deep abiding joy that He gives us freely if we will but get out of the way and receive it.
Great post, Eric. Thanks for pointing us in this direction today. And, Brother, I know noone who is more joyful than you - even if it is sometimes a necessary face you put on for others when you are not feeling so joyful. I wish I could do that, but when I am miserable I am afraid everybody knows it.
Correction on above post…
Sorry - not Cocoon, although it had a lot of the same actors, it was the Twilight Zone movie.
I’ll bet that real joy comes AFTER a few buckets of golf balls…..
June 21st would have been my 28th wedding anniversary. I feel more than a bit gipped especially when I see little old couples (even ones MY age) eating ice cream together at Bruster’s.
Right now I am having joy as a step in faith—can’t see it but I believe it’s there.
As for how my joy quotient is these days, ever since my accident I have to search real hard to find it. I have soooooo much to be happy about but I keep thinking about my handicap whenever I am alone and have nothing to do and regret that very much.
My kids help bring out my childlikness everyday, I don’t know what I would do without them for they help keep me young at heart.
Well, it has taken me a week to turn to this blog and respond in kind. How is my joy quotient? It should be higher. How to get it there? Be more childlike. What a great reminder Eric. On this journey of life it is so easy to forget just what we were created for. It is so easy to go it alone and try and find something better, something more. Oh the drudgery it can bestow on our hearts. How it can drown the joy the Father wants us so badly to experience and live. I personally, am thankful that you have posted this blog. I’ve known deep down how to rekindle the joy He has so graciously blessed me with but have been afraid to admit that I ever let it be squelched. I will greet everyday as a blessing and praise and thank my Creator for everything and everyone who touches my life. Most of all Steve and my kids. Who better to remind us of what love is.