Simply Deep: joy
Simply Deep. This is a new short reflective piece for Arise Blog with something simple yet full of possible complexities. Somewhat like that of ordinary. In God’s eyes, ordinary is attention to reality, what often feels mundane, and most likely present to the small details that matter where every dot and tittle captivates His eye.
Before going on let’s pause and take a moment to ponder.
Maybe even look around at your surroundings and listen.
Or close your eyes to notice what appears in your imagination or thoughts.
What is captivating you today?
Simply deep: joy
Joy—Latin ‘gaudere’ meaning “Rejoice”
It’s the time of year where we see the word “Joy” stamped, sewn, or painted on every regular item (pillows, towels, mugs, shirts, windows etc). We hear the songs of Christmas laden with this simple word.
Recently one evening, I was sharing with my husband that joy is the emotion clinical psychologist Dr. Jim Wilder has found to be most effective in treating his patients who suffer from debilitating trauma. Within his work and study, he has noticed that before trauma can really be worked through that the emotion of joy needs to be brought to the surface just a glimpse of light shining in seems to be most helpful. These are my own paraphrases, however his work is written about and discussed within the pages of The Other Half of Church by co-authors Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks.
In correlation to the emotion of joy, this made me think of the tomb of Christ when opened, the light revealed the joy of new life—resurrection. “So the women left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell the good news to the disciples… Jesus met them , saying, “Rejoice!” [Matt. 28:8-9 AMP] For this was something no one had seen before, and a continuing, renewing, new story began to be unveiled. Jesus is risen!
Why JOY?
The question that followed from my husband was How do they know this? I replied, well let me read to you what they are learning about the brain (neuroscience). These aren’t the clinical trials which I’m sure Dr Wilder has documented but only the documentations from a small chapter titled Joy: The Face of Jesus That Transforms. They write,
“Our brains desire joy more than any other thing.” For example, “As we go through our day, our right brains are scanning our surroundings, looking for people who are happy to be with us.”
“God designed facial recognition circuitry into our brains and linked it to our joy center.”
“Brain science reveals that this joy sensation is crucial for emotional and relation development. Our brain looks specifically to the face of another person to find joy, and this fills up our emotional gas tank. The face is key!”
“Joy is primarily transmitted through the face (especially the eyes) and secondarily through voice.”
“Joy is relational. It is what we feel when we are with someone who is happy to be with us. Joy does not exist outside of a relationship.”
“Joy is important to God and to us!” [56]
There is so much more to share!
For now, may the invitation be for us to simply begin sharing joy with our eyes and voices, looking one another in the eyes, saying “Hello, how are you?” and then staying for a moment to listen to one another’s voices. We have this gift from God to simply be with one another. Simply being, simply smiling, simply reaching out (a phrase I’ve taken from Henri Nouwen and adopted as a mantra, daily and in every place I hope to be this kind of presence).
Pause. Ponder. Wonder.
When you’re ready, let us begin to regularly pray this blessing and allow God to transform us to resemble Jesus:
