Joy

I search the word "joy" on the internet and here is what it comes up:

"the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/joy)

Something exceptionally good or satisfying? What is it?

I guess after two years of studying psychology, the most important term I have learned is "individual differences". Although we do classify people into categories, we are still unique and no one is the same.

If we put this into the context of joy, does it mean that everyone finds different things that bring them joy? Is there one thing that leads us ALL to be joyful?

I couldn't find one except in one baby. The baby whose birth is celebrated every year. Indeed, in Him, we find true joy - joy that never fades.

However, humans are paradoxical. We constantly seek pleasure/happiness (and yes I am thinking about Freud's ideas but I am not going to explain them since he is hated by a lot of people) yet we tend to remember sad things. Imagine yourself lying on your bed finding hard to sleep at 3am in the morning. You are alone in your room and it is raining outside. I can guarantee that your brain will be very active and starts to think about a lot of things. Would you be thinking about the happy times that you and your friends are having fun, or would you be recalling some traumatic memories? I don't know about you but I would definitely be the latter case. That is us. We constantly thinking about negative things. Even if we had a good time, we would have that "post-fun syndrome" and feel pretty upset afterwards. It seems like we forget about the happy things quite a lot of times but sadness is hitting us all the time. It is usually the case where sorrow overshadow joy.

But behold! It is Christmas! The birth of the Saviour who brings us true joy. This good news just "out-joy" all the misery because in Him we have hope. This baby (well, he did turn into a man eventually), who chose to come to this world for OUR sake, is the biggest and best gift a man could ever receive. We have every single reason to be joyful in Him.

But let us forget not that we can still feel sorrow when we have joy in our heart. Joy and sorrow are inseparable. The very sentence that hit me on Sunday is that "we don't know the heights of the mountain unless we start from the bottom".

So, whenever you are down-hearted and feeling blue next time, you don't need to search anywhere for joy - just simply think about this present. As Christmas is near, let's be joyful together and celebrate the birth of the Greatest.


Joy to the world, the Lord is come.


Peace.

T



p.s. The reason for the cat picture is because of the video that Brad showed us on Sunday.