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Joy in Things and Joy in God, by Pastor Charlie

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Joy in Things and Joy in God

By Pastor Charlie


Have you ever been super excited to get some new thing? Have you ever noticed that when you get that thing, your joy starts out high but then quickly fades so that you soon find yourself thinking about the next new thing? Why does this happen to us? Augustine, the famed fifth century church leader, helps us understand. His words are a bit hard to read but it’ll be well worth the effort to do so. I encourage you to read slowly and carefully.

For there is this great difference between things temporal and things eternal, that a temporal object is valued more before we possess it, and begins to prove worthless the moment we attain it, because it does not satisfy the soul, which has its only true and sure resting-place in eternity. An eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with greater ardor when it is in possession than while it is still an object of desire, for no one in his longing for it can set a higher value on it than really belongs to it, so as to think it comparatively worthless when he finds it of less value than he thought. On the contrary, however high the value any man may set upon it when he is on his way to possess it, he will find it, when it comes into his possession, of higher value still (On Christian Doctrine, book 1, chapter 38). 

So the reason our joy begins to fade from the moment we get something new is because that thing cannot fill up the need for joy that’s deep inside our souls. Our need for joy is very deep and not easily satisfied, and those who try to satisfy it with temporal things will be sorely disappointed. And as one thing after another is shown not to satisfy their souls, their desire for joy will increase but their ability to have joy will actually decrease.

On the other hand, those who seek to satisfy their souls with eternal things find that the exact opposite dynamic comes into play. As Augustine so well said, the imagination of fellowship with Jesus is in truth less joyful than Jesus himself because Jesus himself is infinitely more glorious than our ability to imagine him. So those who seek their joy in God find that their actual joy, and their capacity for joy, incrementally increase overtime. They will of course suffer, and they will not always feel superficially happy, but over time their joy will increase and increase as they learn, one experience at a time, that God in all his glory is truly satisfying.

So the lesson for us is this—let us seek our joy in God. As we do, we’ll find that our joy in “things” actually increases because we’ll learn how to enjoy them without asking too much of them.

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