THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021 BE FULL OF JOY

 THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021

JOY

I generally try to wait until Friday to get too religious, but I am lead to talk about joy tonight

 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! (John 15:9)

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I was talking with one of my professors (Dr. Obvious) after class, I asked him about that verse about being filled with joy - and not even filled - but overflowing.

Dr. Obvious says “how nice - you will be filled with joy”.  (Basically repeating my words")

“Okay”, I said, “so, Dr. Obvious.  What is JOY?”

Dr. Obvious takes a deep breath and remembers from someplace in the past.  In Dr. Obvious’s deep baritone voice he says “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.”

Pollyanna wasn’t really asking Dr. Obvious to trip him up but has looked up Joy in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.  So, she says, “Please good doctor, I’m just trying to understand better.  I found this in the Merriam-Webster online version which says:

1: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires: DELIGHT

2: the expression or exhibition of such emotion: GAIETY

3: a state of happiness or felicity: BLISS

4: a source or cause of delight

Pollyanna Karen asks Dr. Obvious “Is joy the same as happiness?”.

(Pollyanna should stop about here, but she isn’t smart enough to know when to stop)

Dr. Obvious takes a deep breath and says (again in his sonorous professorial voice) “No my little one” (and he tried to pat me on my head as a ‘little' one - but Pollyanna Karen is 6 foot 2 inches).  

So, Dr. Obvious adds, “I too can use Google and I found from Compassion International these points about joy and happiness.

“Joy is a little word. Happiness is a bigger word.   (Meanwhile, Pollyanna Karen thinks, “Yes, that is obvious!”

Joy is in the heart. Happiness is on the face.

Joy is of the soul. Happiness is of the moment.

Joy transcends. Happiness reacts.

Joy embraces peace and contentment, waiting to be discovered.

Joy runs deep and overflows, while happiness hugs hello.

Joy is a practice and a behavior. It’s deliberate and intentional. Happiness comes and goes blithely along its way.

Joy is profound and Scriptural. "Don't worry, rejoice." Happiness is a balm. "Don't worry, be happy."

Joy is an inner feeling. Happiness is an outward expression.

Joy endures hardship and trials and connects with meaning and purpose.

A person pursues happiness but chooses joy.”

Pollyanna Karen nods respectfully (after all, Dr. Obvious does have a Doctor of Philosophy degree from a well-known Texas university).

Karen responds with “I’m not quite sure, joy is bigger than happiness, joy can occur even if things around the person aren’t going well.  After all, you just said, “Joy endures hardship and trials”.  Then she adds, “But in your first definition you said ‘a feeling of great pleasure and happiness”.  So a person can choose to be joyful when enduring hardships and trials?

And, if you will, Professor Obvious, one of my definitions said, “a state of happiness or felicity”

So, I’m having hardships and trials in your course, so I should have a ‘state of happiness’ as that definition says - or even “felicity” (which seems to be intense happiness”)

Dr. Obvious is looking past me, and then checking his watch, and quickly comments “Excuse me Pollyanna Karen, but I just remembered I’m late for a meeting with Dr. Boring”, and he turned and walked away. 

I had Dr. Boring last year, and about what I remember is that I got some great naps in his class - but ALWAYS sit in the back row in Dr. Boring’s class and make sure you said “Here”, loud and clear when he calls the attendance roster.

*****

So, as Dr. Obvious walks away, I’m still meditating on the verse “ I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! (John 15:9)

So, I thought that Joy must be something deep within me - something that I choose, something that I pursue, and in spite of other circumstances, I must be joyous.  

I took a few steps towards the library (after all I had two hours before my next class).  I’m to love one another, and I’m to be joyous, no matter what - and let my joy overflow.  I somehow sense that joy is more than just external happiness at walking across the campus in Spring, but more to what sometimes happens, I start to whistle - something upbeat - and I thought maybe joy does come from my heart as does love, but it is so close to my innermost being, that I must always be joyous (and happy), as well as love all people.

So, off I went whistling the melody known as “Ode to Joy” (from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and the foundation of my hymns such as “Joyful, joyful, we adore thee…”  Some freshmen looked at me askew, but that didn’t matter, I was “happy” (on the exterior), and “joyful” (on the inside!!!)

*****

LOVE WINS!!

Karen