I just recently finished the book "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterson. Its a great book and I would highly recomend it to anyone who is interested in Christian theology.
One of the things Chesterson talks about towards the end of the book is the joy of a Christian. The joy of a Christian should be so overwhelmingly huge that words would be not strong enough to express the feeling. Yet we get caught up in the paganistic view that joy is only found in the small things. The pagan is happier the closer he gets to the earth, the Christian is happier the closer he is to the heavens.
Heaven is so overwhelmingly joyful that we in this mortal body cannot fathom just the slightest idea of how wonderful it is! We are deaf to the incredibly joyous sounds in Heaven. Chesterson uses the analogy, "we are sitting in a dark room deaf to the joyous sounds of the heavenly realm."
Chesterson goes so far as to say that Christ, who was unashamed to display His emotions, may have had in Him a thread of shyness. In that incredible personality who over threw the temple and its money changers, yet was so quickly moved to compassion for the multitude of five thousand, may have had a side to Him which He was unable to relate to us. Chesterson says at the end of his book, "I sometimes fancy if maybe it wasn't His mirth."
Of course this always brings about the question, "what is joy?" :~)
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"He who is our very life came down and took our death upon himself. He slew our death by his abundant life and summoned us in a voice of thunder to return to him in his hidden place, that place from which he set out to come to us when first he entered the Virgin's womb." ~St. Augustine
2 comments:
The Bible however, talks about Joy and Peace as two seperate things. The fruit of the spirit for example. I believe that joy and peace do go hand in hand most of the time, but you can have peace without joy. In the midst of trials you can have a peace about whats going on, but that doesn't neccesarily mean you are joyful. The question that I'm facing is, can you have joy without peace?
Yes joy is definately a spiritual experience that really cannot be explained. C.S. Lewis in Suprised by Joy admits to that. So maybe joy is really a mixture of different elements. If thats the case then you could not have joy without peace, or any of the other fruits of the spirit. This would mean that joy is not something totally seperate, contrary to what the Bible says.
The question you asked at the end of your post is one that I've been confused about for awhile. If Christ is the essence of what joy is, then why do we as Christians lack that? The best conclusion that I have come to is that we are sinners and have been indoctrinated with the idea that joy is something that will satisfy us immediately. Being a Christian is not instantly gratifing. Most people I believe not only get happiness mixed up with joy but also believe it is something that will gratify them instantly. So when Christianity does not bring them instant happieness they look for something else that will. When in actuality, true joy is found in the things that take time.
How it relates to us directly, I'm not sure. However, what Chesterson was getting at I think is this: Christ who knew what real joy was maybe had to with hold it from us because it would be to much for us to handle. Now whether or not that denotes shyness I haven't really figured out yet.
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