{Be Real} The Anchor to Joy

We see it, the way joy can come and go like a fleeting wind. The way we feel joy one day, and then it seems to slip right through our fingers the next.

That’s why this month’s topic of joy can be so hard to write about. It’s hard because we all want it, we taste joy and breathe its oxygen, we just don’t seem to have what it takes to keep it in our lungs.

Just last week, I wrote about counting to joy. And this past week, my joy was challenged. I had to say goodbye to family and experiences that I’ve grown so close to, and it was just hard. For days, I didn’t feel like counting gifts, I felt like counting everything but gifts. God was so gentle as He urged me, Count gifts. Count gifts anyway.

I counted gifts through gritted teeth, reluctantly. And I realized that there is something so much deeper connecting us to joy than just fleeting emotions.

It’s God Himself.

When we rely on an emotional experience of joy, we can feel like we are being tossed by the waves. They’re unsteady. We’re unsteady.

I saw this metaphorically last week when I went paddle boarding with a friend in Florida. We saw the wind and realized it might be a hard day. The water looked a little choppy, but we embarked anyway. I was just happy to spend a day in the sunshine, feeling joy’s caress on my skin.

Until the waves started. When we had gone far around the canal, we realized that it was going to take work to paddle home. We literally had people in boats passing us saying, “You’re working a little hard over there.”

My arms were tired, aching. I bent my knees, keeping a steady gaze on the water stretched out in front of me. My eyes were fixed, determined. But my spirit was getting tired. It was then that we started speaking scripture.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
-Nehemian 8:10

The more I spoke, the more I realized all the promises I had to hold onto. For a solid 20-30 long minutes, it kept my eyes above the waves and my knees that were fighting the urge to buckle. I felt God’s presence, and it was there that I realized the meaning:

“In your presence is fullness of joy.”
-Psalm 16:11

The truth that my heart needed, that God has been so graciously whispering, is that the waves will come. Our joy will be challenged.

The world WILL challenge our joy.

But the world cannot TAKE AWAY our joy.

Because God Himself is the fullness of joy. The world can’t take away joy any more than they can take away God’s presence from us.

This is the hope that we have, the hope that keeps us afloat. The hope that keeps our eyes fixed, and our heart light. Even amidst the waves.

God Himself is the anchor to joy – not us, or our own efforts to feel joyful or keep a gratitude journal or create beautiful lives.

And this joy that comes to us through our hope in Jesus Christ will never look like the world’s version of happiness. It won’t look like spring flowers, perfectly styled homes on Instagram, confetti throwing parties or backpacking across the world. Because things only give us temporary happiness. They aren’t anchors, and circumstances aren’t anchors. When we treat them as our pathways to joy, it’s no wonder our joy disappears like the wind.

Our joy isn’t found in things, but only in the person of Jesus. He is in all things, and all things that are given graciously to us are to point back to His always-here presence.

God knows how much we need Him. We were created by Him and for Him, and nothing in this life – nothing – can fill us to the brim and to overflowing but Him. Jesus said when He walked this earth,

“I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”
-John 10:10

How I’ve read this verse, so many times, but skipped over the most important connection. God wants us to have joy to the full. And what was His solution for us? He said, “I have come.”

He came for us. And He still comes for us. Every day, every moment we seek Him, He comes.

God’s solution for us to hold joy is always HIM.

We can’t be our own anchor to joy. Because some days, we sink too. We sink into comparison and anxiety and confusion, and we grow weary. But with God we are promised that we will never drown – only in His grace. Only in His hope.

So we can feel the wind, we can see the waves. But God’s joy-filled breath will carry us over, over, over them. And by His breath we are carried over the problems of this earth, not by ignoring them, but because we carry this anchor of hope into eternity, and this well of joy within us that never, ever fades.

In every moment, there is always a well of joy to access, through the One who is our greatest joy, and our only anchor.

Jesus.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now,

you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

-1 Peter 1:8

Photo Credits: Rina Kay Photography