Growing in Love Until the Day I Die: Joy

So here is another truth of which I’ve discovered throughout my years here at Emmanuel. No matter what your social status, your class schedule, your involvement in church, or work schedule, we are all going to be busy. Busyness is a common trait that we all share in common throughout college.

Freshman, Senior, Counselor, Teacher, Leader, Follower, chaplain, mentor, and mentee, all around a campus and even in the world outside of college is filled with everyday events and activities that keep us all busy.

That is not necessarily a bad thing.

I for one who believe in a God that provides all things has His hand in giving us work to do on Earth that will inevitably keep us busy. So we are doing our required work from teachers, doing the work required of us by God, and sometimes even work that is required of us by us. Thus we end up with a day fully going and just enough time at night (or day) to sleep.

My issue is not with the busyness, it is what the busyness attacks whether it is good busyness or bad busyness. With a life constantly going, one of the major things we have to look out for when being busy is our joy.

Joy in a general sense helps us complete our tasks, helps us find a reason for doing our tasks, godly or non-godly, and helps us get along with life. But busyness can take it away. The joy sapping never happens immediately, we work ourselves out of it slowly.

First we get tired, physically, mentally, spiritually, but not necessarily in that order. Another reason why we don’t catch it sooner rather than later is because we enjoy the work, despite the toll it takes, and that’s not a bad thing. It initially happens when we take our work too seriously. Again taking it serious is a good thing, but too much of a good thing is a bad thing, such like the case of taking our work too seriously.

This I learned from first-hand experience. And many people who I’ve talked to in the past, such as my friend Dallas Chancey knows how a busy schedule can be daunting on ones overall enjoyment.

So like my friend and I have learned there comes a time when we realize how burned out we are and what we must do to change that. Sleep may help, but not in the case of getting your full joy back. What will help is a little phrase called ‘Stop and smell the roses’. I want to put emphasis on the word ‘stop’.

When our teachers, pastors, and friends say that taking a break is good for you, it is not a suggestion, it is a requirement! Now that is not entirely true, but for the sake of joyful health taking a vacation may be mandatory.

Some helpful hints for pausing and reconnecting with our joy include: Hanging out with our friends, celebrating an event (because it will never happen with the same group or crowd ever again), doing something that involves your passions, getting by yourself away from noisy people, or noisy things (cell phone included), or actually smelling a bundle of roses!

Whatever the case may be, because one thing is not going to help all, but there is one thing out there for everyone. Much like we have to set apart time for our homework, our job, our devotion time, our dating time, it is also just as crucial to set apart relax and joy time.

And trust me, there are enough hours in the day to do so.

I don’t want to be biased or insensitive either when I write. I realize that some people deal with medical issues that may hinder joy. If that is the case then there is medicine that helps. We are a very advanced age and we have been blessed to have doctors and pharmacists find assistance with the ailments that we find in today’s time. But as a Christian let me also encourage you to first seek out the ultimate physician, and the only One who is capable of bringing us a satisfying joy that nothing else on this world can do.

This is speaking from personal experience and from the ears of other listeners who know first-hand that that large ‘hole’ we feel in ourselves can only be filled with Gods ultimate joy.

Am I wrong? I don’t believe so. I will encourage all and everyone to give God a chance. Soften the heart. But even that is another topic all on its own.

Here are some Bible verses to end this topic for now. John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Psalm 16:11 “In Your (God’s) presence there is fullness of joy, in Your (God’s) right hand are pleasures for evermore.”