Joy Killers

My friend Mark Lauterbach has written a series of helpful posts on joy (beginning here), springing from his own lack of joy and his reading of Mike Mason's excellent book on joy.  Mark's also written some helpful posts on the joy-killing nature of introspection (beginning here). Here's an excerpt from my favorite of Mark's posts: 90 Days of Joy and the Serious Life:

There is appropriate seriousness but there is also seriousness that is a mark of pride.  Our society cultivates people who are serious about themselves -- and the church does too.  One mark of this: people who are so serious about life have very little sense of humor. They are busy doing important things.  How can they smile?  The world is coming apart.  Global warming is going to ruin us all. There is injustice in the world. We must do something. There is little place for humor.Christians too can be too serious...We can be serious about our lives, our families, gender roles, leadership, the honor of God, and the preservation of the Gospel.  The mark of the overly serious Christian -- no joy.  Another mark -- hand wringing and pontificating about how terrible things are in the church.I have been reading the story of King David lately.  There is no way one can read that story and walk away taking our selves too seriously. God is at work -- through bronze age warriors, stumbling leadership, and limited people.  The ark of the covenant is taken and we find that God is quite capable of upholding his honor. I would not want any of these people for friends -- but God does.The lesson of OT history is that God will accomplish his purposes in the midst of the mess of our lives. He uses us, but we are rusty tools.  We are not that important.I find I am tempted to be self serious -- to lose all humor and joy.  My inner thought is that there is too much to do, too many problems to solve, too many errors to correct, too much suffering in the world.  I need to be concerned, serious, intentional.Woody Allen poked fun at us years ago when he began his commencement address with words along this line: "We stand at the crossroads of human history.  One road takes us into nuclear annihilation.  The other leads into environmental catastrophe.  We must make a wise choice." I think there is some perspective here for Christians -- we are always creating catastrophes and disasters and then rising up in our self-righteousness to take them on. We are doomsday specialists.But I am not necessary. A few years ago I faced cancer, with surgery and treatments.  It came at a time of significant need in the church I served.  But I was knocked out of commission. At first I panicked.  How would the church survive without my leadership?  The answer: it did just fine, even prospered, as God did not have cancer and the Holy Spirit was not on medical leave.Here is where I applied Lewis -- I am not to allow the problems of the world or church or family  blackmail God and joy. I can see many problems in the world.  But the makers of misery must not win and the joy of Christ must prevail.