The unfailing source of joy

There may be times in our lives when joy can seem elusive or unattainable. Perhaps we’re faced with a difficult relationship or loss of employment, or unsettled by an incident that dominates the news.

During such times, I’ve found encouragement in contemplating this verse from the Hebrew Scriptures: “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).

Is it really possible to discover and experience “everlasting joy”?

I find that a good place to start is to consider the nature of God as infinite Spirit. And because the Bible reveals that God created man – a term that includes everyone – in His own image, our real nature is the permanent spiritual expression of God – who is the origin, or source, of boundless joy. The joy that comes from God is not a fleeting moment of happiness but a profound and enduring revelation of spiritual contentment and fulfillment.

When seen as dependent on a particular person, place, or event, joy can seem beyond our grasp if things change or get disrupted. We may feel that the joy we felt in the past can never be rediscovered. Yet an understanding that God is the true source of joy can free us from a belief that joy can be lost or pass us by.

We gain such understanding through relying on spiritual sense – rather than on a material view, which would suggest that we can be separated from God, or good. Spiritual sense, inherent in all of us, helps us to know our unity with divine Spirit, which in turn reveals the goodness that God has prepared for us as His offspring.

Coaching team sports has taught me some valuable lessons about the nature of joy. For several years I worked as assistant coach for a women’s soccer team. Near the end of one particular season, we played a match that would determine who would progress to the regional championship.

The game itself was absorbing and evenly matched. At full-time the scores were level, so the game advanced to overtime, where our team was defeated by a single goal. Our team accepted defeat graciously, but it was a quiet ride home on the team bus that afternoon.

The following day I turned to a passage in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, that states, “This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death” (p. 304).

Inspired by this, I quietly affirmed that the joy of expressing beautiful qualities such as strength, grace, and agility – which come from divine Spirit – can’t be taken away.

That weekend we had another match. Both teams played with commitment, energy, and joy. After the game, the players and coaches of both teams shook hands and congratulated each other. I felt that our team had proved, to some degree, that “joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy.”

Adverse circumstances may present themselves to us in various ways, but we don’t need to resign ourselves to losing our joy. As we’re willing to shift our thought from an unhelpful focus on material circumstances to an apprehension of God as the omnipotent source of goodness, we find deeper satisfaction. We come to realize that because joy is truly spiritual, it is not subject to the vagaries and vicissitudes of material existence.

In the Gospel of John, Christ Jesus – whose healing ministry proved that spiritual understanding brings harmony and joy – refers to the importance of obedience to his teachings: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11).

There may be any number of good activities and pursuits that bring joy and gladness to our lives. Yet the joy such activities bring out has its source in God alone. As we comprehend the immutable nature of Spirit, God – and rejoice in our relation to Him - we discover joy as an indestructible component of our God-created spiritual identity.