The Color of Joy
Day 6. #pilgrimagetojoy
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
Joy is indeed a complex emotion. It can span from wonder, before something astonishing and admirable, to amusement, gratitude, to ectasy and bliss, to even unhealthy jubilation or schadenfreude –relishing in someone else’s suffering. Often, people view it as most closely related to happiness or contentment…something distant from pain. But joy is intimately connected to pain. Pain and suffering does not take away one’s joy. It enriches it.
When my now husband and I were dating he gave me a mixed tape entitled Blue on one side with all these slow, sorrowful songs and the other entitled red with more uptempo highly rhythmic songs. He said together they produce, purple, the color of joy.
Joy is satisfaction and peace in the midst of pain. Joy is seeing that you are not alone in pain. ‘Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional’ Joy is being reassured that we are all connected. Joy is in shifting your perspective to see opportunity in the pain. Opportunity for deepened learning, or opportunities to grow or change. God does not cause everything but can use everything.
I pray that we are able to see the join even in our most dark moments. Let’s embrace the color of joy!
Beth-Sarah, I love this, and thank you for sharing your vulnerable journey with us! Today’s post reminds me of what Kahlil Gibran, the author of The Prophet, writes: “the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Amen and Hallelujah for their relationship and for the way one can so blessedly inform the other.