Third Sunday in Advent brings us to contemplation of JOY> Webster describes joy as intense happiness. The thesaurus lists other words for joy as: pleasure, glee, bliss, elation, mirth, felicity, rapture, delight, transport, exultation, gladness, happi....well you get the picture. I have been pondering the idea of joy and I don't think I quite get it - yet. And I think that is a big part of joy in that it leads one forth into a longing for something more, something deeper, something more than just happiness. It is like standing on a precipice of extreme delight where everything else falls away and you know what is good. Maybe. What do you think of when you think of Joy? What brings you joy?
I think you're on the mark with the idea of longing for something deeper. I like to think of it as a longing for something that we know is more real than what we're experiencing. For Christians, that's a longing to be in our real home with our heavenly Father.
ReplyDeleteThere's something about horses that brings out this kind of longing for me. I'm convinced there are great horses to ride in heaven.
Good post.
Dan
I think your insight is right on. To me, happiness requires a subject and is relative to all the other experiences of that subject. Joy, on the other hand, is a state or an absolute condition or perhaps even a place which exists without regard to life experience. thanks for the post. mark
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