“Joy is a state of mind defined not by the present moment, but by the recognition that there is some- thing beyond us that makes us more than we think we are,” Anna Madsen writes in Gather’s November 2019 Bible study.
Joy is different from its cousin, happiness. Happiness is temporary, fleeting. Happiness is the dog treat someone passes through the bars of a cage at the animal shelter.
But joy is permanent. Joy is what happens when you’ve wept and despaired and thought it was all over. Joy is the treat a dog eats out of the hand of someone who loves him, safe in a home he never thought he’d have.
While happiness may fade, joy—like God—never leaves.
This message is an excerpt from “Soft, snuggly, fearless joy” by Sarah Carson in the November 2019 issue of Gather magazine. Today we remember John Wesley, who died in 1791; and Charles Wesley, who died in 1788; renewers of the church.
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