John and I were trying to define "joy" over dinner @ the Little Oven (real good) the other night.
We concluded that it is not an emotion, like "happiness" or being "chipper"... because the Bible commands we have joy even in our sorrow, even in our deepest sufferings.
While I cannot put my own words into a definition yet, a friend demonstrated joy to me today:
"God is good... but it is painful."
If you can say this, through suffering, through pain... you know joy, even though it must be fought for! "Joy" produces these words because the pleasure of knowing Jesus Christ runs deeper, and is richer than any pleasure or absence of pain this world may offer.
"...we deny ourselves because beyond--John Piper, In Our Joy
self-denial is great reward. Jonathan Edwards goes
even deeper in his analysis of how Jesus’ demand for
self-denial relates to his demand for joy.
"Self-denial will also be reckoned amongst the
troubles of the godly. . . . But whoever has tried
self-denial can give in his testimony that they never
experience greater pleasure and joys than after great
acts of self-denial. Self-denial destroys the very
root and foundation of sorrow, and is nothing else
but the lancing of a grievous and painful sore that
effects a cure and brings abundance of health as a
recompense for the pain of the operation." (J. Edwards)
If this is true, then Jesus’ demand for self-denial is
another way of calling us to radically pursue our
deepest and most lasting joy. They are not competing
commands. They are like the command to be cancer-free
and the command to have surgery.
