How to be less cynical and more honest about the subversive truth that lurks just below the surface of pretty much everything — An Introduction to Joy.
Had a fantastic evening in Indianapolis enjoying a talk by Rob Bell. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I certainly had a great time laughing at so many of his stories coupled with amazing photos. Along the way, he spoke so many good truths and intertwined the topic of joy throughout the evening.
Joy and happiness are quite different. Happiness is a duality because it has an opposite — sadness. Joy, however, can exist in sadness (Like in the movie, Inside-Out). Joy is a different understanding of the deepest fabric of creation — it’s a full spectrum embrace of the human experience. The human experience is fraught with ups and downs — pain, triumph, trials, death, life and all manner of things heavy. The cynic often looks at life and makes broad statements like “thats just the way it is.” Cynicism, at its core, is easy and lazy because it doesn’t go far enough. Cynicism flirts with darkness. It stands at a distance. Or it dips it toe in the heavy and acts like it’s giving you the wisdom of the world The truth is way worse than that little dip.
Life is fleeting, says the book of Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word Hevel means “vapor” or “mist.” Which is how this poetic book of wisdom describes life. It’s all meaningless. Nothing we have discovered or do is actually new under the sun. Good people die young. Bad people live long. Makes no sense, but there it is. If you think there is a guarantee or predictability to life, you’d be wrong. A+B doesn’t always = C. There are no guarantees. So, says the wise one, go live life. Love it. Enjoy it. Life is precious. It’s fragile and sacred… so enjoy it fully. Live in each moment.
Joy isn’t found in standing at a distance; rather its found in tapping in to the depth of the heavy, of the pain. There is a certain lightness that is naive, ignorant — unaware of the darkness of the world. But there is also a lightness that comes from having experienced incredible heaviness or pain. Like in Harry Potter, people who had experienced death were able to see these amazing creatures called Thestrals. Beautiful and peaceful, they couldn’t be experienced by those who hadn’t walked in that pain. For those who have walked in true pain, significant loss and experience joy in the midst… that is something. See, joy doesn’t push out the heavy or deny the pain. Joy knows how to be HERE…fully present. Joy wraps its arms around it and embraces it. Joy doesn’t do broad, negative generalities. It spots the love, the grace, the peace in all the places of life. Joy reframes how we experience everything. Rob showed a picture of a brick wall in Venice Beach with a relief sculpture carved in the plaster. The sculptor, he said, saw the image and just removed what was in the way so that what was there the whole time could be revealed. There it is. We might have just seen a old battered brick wall. He saw something else completely.
And that’s joy. That’s what James is talking about when we experience joy in trials. Bob told a story on Sunday about his father-in-law who is battling cancer, pneumonia, and other serious end-of-life type health issues. They recently had a talk about love and being in a place of peace. After praying together and experiencing a divine moment where Richard heard affirmations from God, he started laughing. There he was in a hospital room at Mayo Clinic. A man in pain. A man in peace. A man experiencing joy in the middle of it all. Beautiful.
Thoughts from 09.29.19 Indianapolis, IN
An Introduction to Joy Tour with Rob Bell.