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Disturbing joy
"Strength through joy". This was once a virtuous motto, used to encourage underprivileged people to work for one another, to be a whole people, to live in community and to strive for joy. This, at least, was how the Nazi party managed to unify pre-war Germany. But is joy something that we should aim to experience? Does not true joy come rather through suffering?
Well, it sounds very worthy and biblical – but actually, is it right? Paul of course, wrote that Suffering produces endurance, character and hope (Romans 5:3-4). But hold on a minute – let's be honest, and say that suffering produces misery. Turning it into a great virtue sounds almost masochistic. Suffering is an awful thing to endure, and joy is of course, a much more preferable alternative.
Julian of Norwich, a 15th century mystic, said that "the greatest honour that you can give to Almighty God, greater than all your penances and sacrifices and mortifications, is to live joyfully because of the knowledge of his love."
Since joy is an important Christian experience, it can seem as though it is right for us to seek after this experience. "God wants me to be happy" does he not? So why should I not seek for joy? This, after all, is what everyone is doing. Advertisers know that we want to experience joy, so their adverts are rarely full of people who are miserable at buying their product! Smiles and friendship and family and good times: this is what life is about. But in reality, beneath the smiles, modern British people are deeply unhappy. The British Medical Association for instance, recently published a report that said, "rises in mental health problems seem to be associated with improvements in economic conditions". Chasing after the smiles of the advertisers will not bring us joy.
Even in our churches, the temptation is to be always "upbeat", to seek after the liveliest, most touching or deeply moving worship experience. To seek a short-cut to joy. Consider today's popular worship songs when compared with the Book of Psalms. The psalms are full of frustration, difficulty, anger, struggle – as well as joy. But how often today do we sing laments, how often do we cry for justice, or plead with God to ask why we must endure pain? Even in worship, we seek that advertisers' smile, just to let people know that we are joyful. But maybe true joy is a by-product of the Christian life and worship, not a goal to be pursued in its own right.
Joy and suffering are as connected as day-break with the night that precedes it. That is not to say that one automatically follows from the other. But that for joy to have any meaning, suffering cannot be unknown to us. The grace of God means that we can encounter this ground-shaking joy even, and perhaps especially, in the midst of suffering. Suffering does not have to be absent, for joy to be a reality.
The Westminster Confession declares that "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever". Here, joy is not the goal, but the consequence of worshipping God in word and deed. Our greatest goal in life is not the advertisers' smile, but the glory of God. That is, to offer every split second and every small thought and every moral space and every square inch of our life to God in worship. Whatever joy may later come into our life, will come as the gift of this loving God, and enter our lives in a way that cannot be planned, expected or manufactured. Such joy strikes us like beautiful lightning from above. This divine joy shakes the heavens and the earth, as it arrests our lives and breathes new life into the world around us.
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