The Benefits of Joy

I took a chance when I purchased The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder & Michel Hendricks, but how often can you get advice from a Neurotheologian? This book is terrific and I would recommend it to everyone. Below is an excerpt about the benefits of joy. I posted a second excerpt that you can read here.

As I studied more about the role of joy in spiritual formation, I saw the benefits piling up. When Jim told me that he discovered the importance of joy and brought it to his counseling practice, he saw drastic changes in the lives of his patients. His clinic treated difficult cases that other clinics and churches had given up on, and most patients arrived to their first session in a state of severely low joy. Previously, the clinic would need to hospitalize a large percentage of these patients during their treatment. Their counseling sessions would send them into such deep trauma that they could no longer function. Jim and the other therapists had come to accept that hospitalization was a normal part of recovery.

Once the clinic started focusing on building patients’ joy before treating their trauma, hospitalization rates plummeted to almost zero. They were filling up their clients’ gas tanks with joy fuel before beginning the heavy work of trauma recovery. Trying to do emotionally taxing work with an empty tank is like running a marathon without having eaten food for a month. Eventually your body will shut down for lack of energy. Jim’s patients would emotionally collapse. We run the same danger in our churches and families when we do not build our joy together as a part of ministry. We eventually drain our tanks and run on empty.

Joy helps us regulate our emotions and endure suffering. Jesus refused to relinquish joy in the midst of His suffering on the cross. When we are able to stay relationally connected to others and God, we experience joy while we suffer. Joy does not remove our pain, but it gives us the strength to endure. Remember that joy is relational, so “joy in suffering” means that God and our community are glad to be with us in our distress. They do not allow us to suffer alone. We are able to bear our suffering like Jesus, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2 NASB).

Contrary to what some preachers say in their sermons on Jesus’ “seven last words,” He never lost touch of His Father’s face shining on Him as He was tortured and humiliated. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). He could see through the angry faces in the crowd to the kind and steady gaze of His Father. His joy sustained Him. The author of Hebrews exhorts us to handle our suffering the same way, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” (12:2 NASB). Jesus’ face helps us persevere through the pain of life.

It is important to remember that joy is not strictly an emotion. We might refer to it as a supra-emotion because it can go on top of and connect with other emotions. For example, if I lose my job, this is usually not considered a joyful occasion. Instead, I am probably feeling some combination of sadness, fear, and anger. However, when I experience these unpleasant emotions and can simultaneously feel that God is with me, I have added joy into the mix. If I have close friends who are also happy to be with me in my loss, my joy magnifies even more. Now I’m feeling sad and joyful. Fearful and joyful. Angry and joyful. Joy does not replace the unpleasant emotions; instead it combines with my emotions to keep me relationally connected in distress.

The importance of joy to our brain highlights the fact that we must suffer in community. We were not meant to suffer alone. We need to lean on God and on our people in times of distress. We naturally do this when a family member dies. Everyone comes together in order to share the sadness. We tell stories about the deceased. We eat together. We sit in silence. We are joyful (not happy) because we want to suffer together. This is the definition of joy: I want to be with you. Joy is relational in its essence.

Joy is the foundation for a secure bond with God. When I trust that God is happy to be with me’ and is smiling at me, this joy naturally removes fear from the relationship. A goal we have in our bond with God is to nurture a loving relationship until it has no fear. One of Jesus’ disciples explains it well: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). Joy is the path to a fearless love for God.

Our identity is built and formed by joy-bonded relationships. The identity center in our brain grows in response to joy, which helps us act like ourselves in all situations. In a performance-based relationship or community, our identity becomes distorted because we feel the need to perform. When we put on a pretend self, our joy starts decreasing. We can build joy only with our true self. When churches foster a performance-based environment that encourages us to simply put on a happy face when we are suffering, it will quickly run out of joy.

I have already mentioned that joy helps us experience God’s presence in our bodies. I could keep listing more benefits, but let me quote a book Jim coauthored:

“When we are the sparkle in someone’s eyes, their face lights up with a smile when they see us. We feel joy. From the moment we are born, joy shapes the chemistry, structure and growth of our brain. Joy lays the foundation for how well we will handle relationships, emotions, pain and pleasure throughout our lifetime. Joy creates an identity that is stable and consistent over time. Joy gives us the freedom to share our hearts with God and others. Expressing our joyful identity creates space for others to belong. Joy gives us the freedom to live without masks because, in spite of our weaknesses, we know we are loved. We are not afraid of our vulnerabilities or exposure. Joy gives us the freedom from fear to live from the heart Jesus gave us. We discover increasing delight in becoming the people God knew we could be.”

God designed us to live on a rich diet of joy-filled relationships. Communities that take joy building seriously will experience all of the benefits listed above and more. Since joy happens when people are glad to be together, take a moment to remember your own experience in joyful groups. Have you seen any of these benefits of joy?

I feel like I belong
I feel more stable when things go wrong
It is easier to be myself
I feel free to share my heart with God and others

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