What Steals Your Joy? And Why Do You Let It?
While we’re on the broad topic of contentment and joy and happiness, I would like to ask what robs you of these things? While I argued in my last post that we will never feel full contentment in this lifetime, a few posted comments reminding me of the importance of joy. One even said she would doubt the Christian faith if we all walked around ungrateful all the time. Great point. We need–and have huge reason–to be joyful. Yet what percentage of my day is actually spent in a joyful state of mind.
Being a morning person, those early hours are my best bet for the feeling of joy to overwhelm me. I’ve always hated going to sleep (just ask my parents about the joys of trying to get me to abide by my bedtime) because bedtime makes morning feel so far away. So when morning finally comes back, I’m happy. The sun, coffee, breakfast, early a.m. reading or a run–when I manage to squeeze it in–make me joyful. Yet it takes incredibly small missteps or reminders of incredibly small problems to steal that joy. By 8:30 a.m. I am usually stressed again and too busy for joy.
this book is fanTAStic, by the way
When I ask myself what those missteps and problems are, I realize I have no excuse to allow them to steal my joy. The real people who I would allow to fall victim to joy stealers are people like the characters in a novel I’m in the middle of: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. For five years during WWII, they lived isolated, cut off from communication with the outside world due to German occupation of their tiny island. They’re fictional but represent people that actually suffered that. They didn’t have sugar or flour so made “desserts” like potato peel pie. Gross. I always say fruit is not dessert, so starchy bland vegetables certainly don’t land anywhere near my definition for a sweet-tooth fix.
Point is, what steals my joy shouldn’t. But this lesson has been taught us a million times over hasn’t it? I think this post thus far has been more self-talk for me than a dissection of a “hard question.” So I must remain true to my series and now ask you something more difficult to confront: Why, assuming it is our choice, do we let our joy be stolen?
When I’m joyful, I feel alive. When I’m sad, I also feel alive, just a different type of aliveness. So sadness and joyfulness are ok. It’s the anger and bitterness that do not make me feel alive. In fact, they make me feel dead and not myself. It is these I often trade for joy. Therefore, in a way, I am trading life for death. And it feels completely natural and startlingly easy to do so. Is this simply proof of our fallenness? To choose the dead over the living? In this light, the question of what steals my joy suddenly seems much more serious. What minor detail causes me to choose death over life? And what would years’ worth of choosing this mean for my soul?
I know what steals my joy. Worry. I have health issues right now and I am struggling to accept that whatever path God has for me will be good, even if its hard. My health issues may in fact be temporary but worrying about them distract me every day. Thank you for your post, it hits the spot of what I’m struggling with.
Thanks for your honest comment, Amanda. Worry, espcieally over the things beyond our control, is probably my primary joy killer as well. You’re in good company! 🙂
PS. I mentioned your Dad in my latest blog post, just realised.
This has been the topic on my mind for 2 weeks now. I ALWAYS reflect on a talk Beth Moore gave a few years back. She said our joy stealers boil down to 3 things…J.A.W.
Jealousy
Anger
Worry
We are either jealous, angry, or worried and those 3 things steal our joy.
I can’t remember all of the Scripture she used…it was plentiful and enlightening. Either way, I always think back to JAW when I’m feeling I am “choosing death over life”. This week has been heavy with stolen joy for me culminating today, so I even added W to my prior J reasons for my stolen joy as of late.
Love your blog and glad I’m in VERY good company of people who can let their joy be stolen, even if it is just for a short time.
Will be mulling over this even more and might even track down my notes from that talk. I kept them because it was so pertinent to my life and oh so good.
I think sadness itself often steals my joy. I’ve heard it said that joy is contagious, but I think sadness is equally contagious. I’d venture to say sadness is more prevalent than joy. It’s unfortunate but often true.
Katie
I’ve been thinking about this a lot the past few days, so it’s neat how I stumbled upon your blog right now. Two things have been on my mind about this. One, is not trying to find happiness or joy on my own, but rather contentment. Just being content with whatever God’s will is for me. Trusting it, believing it, knowing it…and ironically this leads to peace and joy. I have learned from Paul’s example – Philippians 4:11 – he was able to be content with much or little because he sought God’s will instead of his own. Second, and I just read this this morning – James 4:1 – Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? I can steal my own joy with my own selfish thoughts and ambitions, instead of, again, focusing my thoughts on God’s will and ambitions. Easier said than done. 🙂 But…the only way to true joy. BFM http://www.cookingupfaith.com
T
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