The Unconditional Joy of Christmas
By Rev. Ben Boswell, lead pastor of the Collective Liberation church. Originally published at Confronting Whiteness.
The empire has done everything it can this year to try to take the “merry” out of Christmas. But even if they were successful at taking the “merry” out of Christmas, that does not mean they can steal our joy. Because happiness, merriment, and good cheer are not the same thing as joy. No, happiness is an emotion that arises from feelings of pleasure and changes based on circumstances, but joy is something more profound that is not dependent on our feelings or circumstances.
Joy is also not the same as optimism or positive thinking because our joy can exist and persist even in the middle of grief, sorrow, pain, and suffering. Even when we are experiencing sadness, loss, addiction, depression, loneliness, sickness, and even death, we can still have joy. Even if you can’t bring yourself to be “happy,” “merry,” or “cheerful” this year because of all you have going on in your life or the world, you can still have joy. Even if the empire or the challenges you face in life this year have taken the “merry” out of Christmas, it cannot steal your joy.
Because joy is rooted in the power of our relationship with God, our Creator. Joy is a gift, a habit, a practice, a virtue, a fruit of the spirit, and a disposition of the soul that cannot be touched or shaken by the outside world. Joy is a transcendent song that is so deeply rooted in the core of our being that it can be sung at every age, embodied in any season of life, and vocalized alongside the color of every emotion. Joy is understanding that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
Joy is understanding that we are created in the image of God and are all beloved, unique, irreplaceable parts of humanity and the universe. Joy is understanding that our purpose for existence is what Jacob Marley said to old Scrooge in The Christmas Carol, “Humanity was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business.” Joy comes from knowing we are in the business of loving God and our neighbors.
Contemporary poet and activist Ross Gay believes that joy and suffering are not opposites but mutually dependent human experiences. His work takes the paradox of finding joy in a suffering world and turns it into an everyday spiritual discipline that fuels activism. In a recent interview, he said,
I think there’s a conception of joy as meaning something easy. And to me, joy has nothing to do with ease. [Instead], joy has everything to do with the fact that we’re all human and we’re all going to die. Whenever something beautiful and wonderful is happening between us, we are also in the process of dying, and that common experience is what elicits joy.
He continues,
Joy is when my alienation from people and [separation from] the entire universe disappears; everything becomes luminous. Like mycelium under the forest, there’s something connecting all of us. And among the things uniting us is that we have many common experiences, and a foundational one is that we are not going to be here forever. And that’s a joining, a joy-ning.”1
This article was originally published at Confronting Whiteness and is partially reproduced here with the permission of the author, who is not affiliated with this website or its views.
- Krista Tippet, “Ross Gay on the Insistence of Joy,” On Being, July 25, 2019. [↩]
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