Joy is also a shared quality which should be evident in the life of a believing community.  In the life of Old Testament Israel, festivals were accompanied with great rejoicing.  The Psalms are often thought of as the Blues of scripture, but they shout with joy as much as they mourn their lot: Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob (Psalm 81:1).  One of the defining characteristics of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles is the exuberant and uncontained joy they felt at the movement of the Holy Spirit in fellowship and mission.  Paul found his greatest pleasure in the personal spiritual development of Christian people and the role he played in this: for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming?  Is it not you? he exclaims to the church at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:19).  His joy often surfaced in the face of human adversity: in Acts 13:51 when the elite classes of Antioch incite hostility in the people towards Paul and Barnabas, it says they were ‘filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit’.

The joyfulness of Christians in the face of suffering (e.g. Colossians 1:24) is one of the blessings of possessing a quality which is rooted firmly in the character of God himself.  If we cannot be separated from his love, then neither can we be separated from his joy.  It is thus a sign of God’s coming rule over this earth.

These clues may help us to locate the low profile of joy today.  It comes from knowing God well, is found most fruitfully in community with other Christians in worship and mission, surfaces unexpectedly as people endure personal suffering or hostility for their faith and comes from the eager expectation of the future God will inaugurate in Christ.

The poverty of much personal devotion, the growing individualisation of life, the lack of persecution for the faith and the loss of interest in the future God has planned for us each make their contribution to the low profile of joy.  This is not to say it is absent, as joy cannot be extinguished and is irrepressibly present in the lives of many Christians I know.  Strangely, I can’t say for sure whether it is present in me in ways that are apparent to others, which leaves me with a noticeable challenge.

The encouragement lies in joy being a fruit of the Spirit.  If we feel we lack it, we only have to pray to God for it for things to start to happen.