Think of the word joy. What comes to mind?
Is it a thing? A person? Or did your brain immediately jump to the “Sunday school answer” before I even finished the question? Ha.
But really, when you hear the word joy, what picture forms in your mind?
Maybe it’s a memory with someone you loved who has passed away.
Maybe it’s your mom’s lasagna on a Sunday afternoon.
Maybe it’s the sound of laughter.
Many of us connect joy to an experience.
I believe there are two different kinds of joy.
There is experiential joy. The kind tied to circumstances, moments, memories, and things. These are good gifts. God created a beautiful world full of laughter, relationships, good food, adventure, and celebration. Scripture reminds us that God is a good Father who gives good gifts (Matthew 7:11). Experiencing joy in those things is not wrong. In fact, it’s part of His design.
But there is also a second kind of joy.
A deeper, steadier, unwavering kind. A joy that doesn’t rise and fall with circumstances.
When I think about joy, my mind often goes back to a trip I took in 2008. I had the opportunity to travel with a missions team to Malawi, Africa.
Hands down, the people I met there were the most joyful people I have ever encountered.
And the craziest part?
They had almost nothing.
I remember watching a group of boys proudly show me a toy car they had built themselves. It was made from discarded plastic bottles, bits of broken wheels, sticks, and string they had found on the ground. To them, it wasn’t trash, it was a treasure. They laughed, raced it across the dirt, and proudly explained how they had built it.
Their homes had dirt floors. Their beds were blankets laid directly on the ground. And yet when we visited, the women welcomed us with the brightest smiles and the most generous hospitality. They served us as if we were honored guests.
There was a light in their eyes I still remember.
When I came home, I struggled.
I opened our pantry and it was overflowing with food. More options than I could even think about eating. I stood there and felt uncomfortable with the abundance.
Then I walked into Walmart.
And I remember feeling overwhelmed, not with gratitude, but with consumerism. Aisles and aisles of things people were buying, but somehow still seemed unhappy.
I couldn’t shake the contrast.
There was such a stark difference between the spirit of where I had just come from and the spirit of where I lived.
The difference wasn’t possessions.
It was joy.
The people in Malawi had almost nothing to rely on except Jesus.
Which turns out to be everything.
Here in America, we have almost everything to rely on.
And sometimes we forget about Jesus.
Which is still everything.
I believe that is the difference.
When Jesus is all you have, you quickly learn that He is enough. Your joy isn’t built on comfort, convenience, or abundance. It’s built on trust.
Real joy doesn’t come from having everything.
It comes from knowing the One who is everything.
And maybe the real question for us is this:
Where is our joy coming from?
Because the source of our joy will determine whether it fades…
or whether it lasts.
We want to thank JuLea Bouma for sharing this post.
Women's Ministry 