Advent Week Three: Joy

What gives you joy? Many encourage us to ask this question and pursue only those things which cause us to feel delight. Everything else is simply clutter, if not something more detrimental to our well-being. Whatever doesn’t “spark joy,” as the organizationalist Marie Kondo suggests, ought to be discarded. While this advice seems wise, it will fail us. 

First, because sin impedes our understanding, we often do not know what will produce real, lasting delight. We choose things that generate a spark for a moment but then soon fade. Or we chase after delights that put down, harm, or conflict with others. Second, the world bombards us with images, videos, and songs to train us that certain relationships, services, or products will bestow joy upon us. All indications point to the fact that this siege warfare works: Often what we choose to delight in is what advertisers have told us to delight in. And where has that gotten us? To a world of anxiety, depression, and isolation. That is no cause for rejoicing.

Here’s a better question: Where can we discover the highest source of eternal, never-fading joy? Real, true joy will only be found where perfect love has cast out fear and guilt and where peace has conquered anxiety and disunity. Surrounded by those conditions, the heart cannot help but burst forth with rejoicing and delight. These conditions are only met fully in one location: the Kingdom of God. Although we await the day when this Kingdom will cover the whole earth, today the King, Jesus Christ, is establishing his Kingdom in our hearts. When he becomes our everything — our identity, our goal, our boasting — we can rejoice even in the midst of suffering, knowing that his loving presence remains with us always, now and forever (Romans 5:1-11; 1 Peter 1:3-9). Why do we continually turn to lesser joys when the greatest joy, Christ our Lord and Savior, graciously gives us himself?