The Gift of Joy

 O God, I stand beaten and battered by the countless manifestations of my own inadequacies.  Yet, we must live with joy.... Aid me in this quest, O God.  Help me find satisfaction and a deep, abiding pleasure in all that I have, in all that I do, in all that I am.  ---Rabbi Nachman of Breslau

Rabbi Nachman of Breslau stressed the importance of joy in the spiritual life and encouraged his followers to spend an hour a day conversing with God, "as you would with your closest friend."  St. Dominic Savio once said, "Joy is the unmistakable sign of the presence of God."  I think the quest for joy is a universal one.  Most people would say the quest for happiness is the one that is universal, but joy, to me, goes deeper than happiness.  Happiness depends on circumstances; joy does not.    The night before He dies, Jesus tells the disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love....I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete" (John 15).

We thirst for this deep joy, but where can we find it?  Someone once told me, "You cannot give yourself joy!"  Why that should have been such a revelation to me, I cannot say, but it hit me between the eyes!  I had been trying to "manufacture" joy for some time -- transcendental meditation, no; positive thinking, no; yoga, no.  None of these worked for me; they gave me a modicum of peace for the moment, but life always intruded on that temporary "fix."  When someone prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit, however, I discovered that I did not have to "do" joy -- it was a gift from Above!  

Psalm 16 is one of my favorites:

Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;

You have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to grave,

nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

If we connect the words of  this Psalm with the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, we better understand His Gift of Joy to the disciples.  Joy is to be found in the Presence of God, and His Presence remains with us; it is up to us to tap into that Presence, as Rabbi Nachman advised -- talking to God daily as if He were our closest friend.  He doesn't always "answer" us, but He always bestows joy!