Joy and laughter

Not long ago I saw a plaque on someone’s wall which read, “Live every moment with joy and laughter.” O, that it were so simple! We all know there are plenty of moments that aren’t filled with joy.

When I saw this plaque my first reaction was to sneer at the simplistic platitude. But maybe it’s worth a little more serious thought. You’ve probably heard or read discussions about “joy” in the Bible (including the related “rejoice”). If you haven’t, it’s a worthwhile study. In my version these words occur 136 times in the New Testament and a whopping 311 times in the Old Testament. Obviously this is a huge topic. Obviously it is something pretty important to our God, since He inspired so much for us to think about.

So, what do you think about this? Jesus says:

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” (Luke 6:22-23)

Going through what Jesus describes here would not fit the definition of “joy” that most of us would have in mind! But in fact, his apostles did the very thing Jesus told them to:

And when they [the religious authorities] had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. (Acts 5:40-42)

When we go looking, we find a number of other similar occurrences of “joy” and “rejoicing” in the New Testament. Clearly, we’re being taught that the positive emotion of feeling joyful isn’t necessarily dependent on the circumstances we find ourselves in. It comes from our attitude toward those circumstances.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying “every moment” can be filled with joy just by having the right attitude—which is what the plaque suggests. What God is saying to us in His word is: we can find genuine joy in being aligned with Him and His Son and His plan—whatever happens as a result. This is clearly something much more profound than a nice-sounding saying on a plaque.

Laughter doesn’t occur nearly so much, and often it’s referring to laughing in ridicule. But there are a few passages like this:

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” (Psalm 126:1-2)

This is the joy and laughter we want to be part of. No, we’re not going to laugh every moment, and we’re not going to rejoice every moment. But we’re counselled that we can, in fact, have joy in knowing about and being part of the plan of God, His work of salvation in Jesus Christ. Instead of being bitter, or angry, or outraged, or however else we might react to something that on the surface doesn’t seem joyful.

I encourage you to follow up on those 447 instances of joy and rejoicing in your Bible. Yeah, that sounds like asking a lot, but a Bible app or web site makes it pretty easy. There is joy set before us (as there was for Jesus—Hebrews 12:1-2). We have something to rejoice about for real, whatever the circumstance.

Love, Paul