What is joy? Do I have an obligation to be joyful/happy? What if I just want to be grumpy today?

A joyful girl in the Dominican Republic running to get her water from a Healing Waters system.

For those of you that know me, I am generally a pretty happy, upbeat person. However I have had my days and even extended periods of grumpiness (ask my wife, or some of my coworkers.)

I am still reading A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. The chapter this week was on "Joy" and what Joy looks like in the world. It got me thinking about joy and whether or not I have an obligation to be joyful.

To begin with, what is Joy? Dictionary.com defines joy as:
1. the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated.
3. the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.
4. a state of happiness or felicity.

Ok, that is a start. Let's dig deeper.

Mother Teresa writes in the book No Greater Love:

"A joyful heart is a normal result of a heart burning with love. Joy is strength. . . We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God's love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy. Joy is one of the best safeguards against temptation."

Wow, what profound words. And what a great way to view joy and the importance of joy.

Eugene Peterson writes:
"Joy is a characteristic of Christian pilgrimage. It is the second in Paul's list of the fruits of the spirit. . . This is not to say that joy is a moral requirement for Christian living. . . Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. . . We come to God because none of us have it within ourselves, except momentarily, to be joyous. Joy is a product of abundance; it is the overflow of vitality. It is life working together harmoniously. It is exuberance."

Well I have to say that I am relieved that Eugene Peterson thinks it is "not a requirement for Christian living" because if it was a requirement, I would fail. But his description of joy sure makes me want to have it in my life, I want to be a part of the "overflow of vitality" with my "life working together harmoniously" and a little bit of "exuberance" thrown in there.

I don't have a moral imperative to be joyful, but I want to be joyful. So how the heck do I do that? Eugene Peterson addresses how not to find authentic joy:

We try to get it (joy) through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another's imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary - a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run our of money, the joy trickles away. We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged. . . A common but futile strategy for acheiving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment."

All of this got me to thinking about the joy that I see when I am down in Latin America, both on vacation and when I am working with Healing Waters International. I work and interact with people who have so little, and yet they have so much joy in their lives. It is kind of embarrasing to realize that I can get uptight and grumpy over a home repair cost, or not having the best skis, and the people that I have the privilege of working with in Latin America have so much more happiness and joy with so much less in their lives. It really reiterates the notion that joy is not found through entertainment or through material things, it comes from within. And it comes from an authentic relationship with God.

How authentic is my relationship? Where is my joy?