By intensity? By frequency? By duration? By its cause? By its intentionality or spontaneity?
Perhaps these are all good qualities to consider. If you feel like you’re lacking joy, weighing these kinds of questions might pinpoint some barrier to joy. Or maybe even point out some joy that has been running deep in your heart like a subterranean stream, quiet and subtle and as of yet unnoticed.
Another good question is, Whose joy do we share? Because joy—if it is at all real joy—is shared. Joy that is bottled up and kept to oneself is at best spoiled joy, mere self-serving pleasure. Pure joy, on the other hand, is contagious. We have caught it from someone else, and also pass it along to others.
It is said that God is love. God is also joy. True love always rejoices and shares that joy. It was part of Jesus’ prayer for his disciples—and all who would follow—”that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
In prayer, the disciple asks, “Jesus, what brings you joy today?” And then, without rushing to any assumptions, sits and waits and listens and rejoices along with whatever the Spirit of Jesus shares.
