How do you recognise a person ‘in joy’? I mean like being ‘in love’. Why is Joy so important to have? Why do we seldom have it?
Doubtless, there are many

things that pass for joy in the world: laughter, a cheerful disposition, excitement from stimulants like alcohol, drugs, revelry or great riches. In my home, if Arsenal wins there is unequalled excitement. Is this joy?
Solomon says, “Even in laughter the heart may ache!” (Prov. 14.13). Many who have these joy-counterfeits are also the most joyless.
The seminary I attended was in one of the most affluent suburbs of Chicago. But it was also known for its high suicide rates.
The world promises us ‘induced’ joy. In reality, it is momentary excitement with no enduring pleasure. Some Christians today also live on ‘induced’ joy; they change their source of it using religious stimulation as a substitute stimulant.
To the question “What is the chief end of man?”  The Westminster Shorter Catechism answers with the following words: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”
In his book Hot Tub Religion, the celebrated Anglican theologian, Dr. J.I. Packer says that God intended joy for us; it is exclusively in Christ. “The Christian ... discovers that, though living in this fallen and disordered world is never a ‘joy ride’, yet it may become a ‘joy road’ through response to the call of God.”
In John 16.20-24, Jesus gives us a peep into the source and nature of Christian joy.
It is characterised by completeness, a ‘restedness’ that does not pursue the world’s brand of externally stimulated joy. It is wholeness or togetherness free from both internal and external fragmentation; bliss that floods a heart given to Christ.
According to Jesus, Christian joy is contingent on three things.
The first is: Who or what you live for. Like the woman in the pains of childbirth, our sorrow in the world is turned into joy because we await the coming of our Lord in glory.
This is total reorientation when Jesus becomes the reason for your life. We live for Jesus because he loved us to the Cross.
I liken it to the day my wife ‘accepted me’. I became a transformed man. I was loved! To know that “Jesus loves, values and accepts me” is greater joy.
Joy is also contingent on how you live. Sin is the greatest ‘joy robber’. It is only in God’s presence that there are ‘joys forever more’ (Psalm 16.11). Sin fakes joy; it is a mirage. When you think you have it, you are left emptier than before.
Sin takes a good gift and turns it into tears. For example, sex is a very good gift from God, but it has been misused, leaving a host of wounded people in its wake.
Young energy is sucked up, innocence is traumatised, old men are defamed, relationships are broken, and there are endless diseases for those who are casual with it. There is no joy in sin.
The ultimate joy is to know that my tomorrow is a sure deal; that we will live with Jesus never to be parted again. J. I. Packer identifies one source of joy as possessing “something worth possessing.”
The most precious possession in Christ is tomorrow, the assurance that ‘all will be well’. That is why the hymn writer could sing, “It is well with my soul.” This truth gives joy within.
And all it takes is to ask. Jesus says, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Ask now for the gift of His salvation, and joy will flood your heart. Amen.

Rev. Dr. John Senyonyi is the UCU vice chancellor