A Healthy Dose of Joy – Living with a Glad, Cheerful Heart

We’re heading into the time of year when many people eat more ice cream and I confess I am very discerning, selective and particular when it comes to eating ice cream. I will only eat ice cream that’s cold or melting, in a cup or in a cone, or blended into a frappe or covered with butterscotch, caramel, or marshmallow, or as part of a sundae or banana split, or on a plate next to a piece of cake, or on top of a piece of pie, or a brownie, or in between two cookies, or right out of a container with a spoon, but that’s it – otherwise I just won’t eat it. I like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as well as their approach.

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May 31, 2015
A Healthy Dose of Joy – Living with a Glad, Cheerful Heart
Pastor Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church

One of the flyers about their business is titled, “We’re on a mission to bring joy!” Whether we realize it or not, that’s also true of the church. We’re on a mission to bring joy and to share the joy of Jesus with others. Healthy relationships are also marked by joy, gladness, laughter, and a good sense of humor. These qualities add energy and spark to relationships that lift our spirits and brighten our day. Listen to two Proverbs that teach us about the importance of a having a glad, cheerful, joyful heart. Proverbs 15:13, “A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.” Proverbs 17:22, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.”

Part of what I want to say in the sermon today about joy and living with a glad and cheerful heart is very simple: Lighten up! You’ll live longer, laugh more, be happier, and you’ll be more enjoyable to be around. No one enjoys being around a grouch. Laugh every day. Life is hard enough without having a sense of humor. Never take life too seriously; you’ll never get out of it alive. Don’t take yourself too seriously either. Be able to laugh at yourself – everybody else already is. Self-deprecating humor is always better than humor that demeans other people. Be the sort of person who lights up a room when you come in and not when you leave. My grandfather liked to say “You should have a good belly laugh every day because it’s good for the liver.” Medical studies have validated the healing power of laughter. Laughter also helps to lubricate relationships.

One aspect of joy is gratitude which doesn’t just warm our heart, it may also lead to a healthier one. The American Psychological Association found patients with asymptomatic heart failure showed decreased levels of inflammatory biomarkers in the body, which are related to improved cardiac health.

The study consisted of 186 men and women who kept a gratitude journal for eight weeks as they received regular clinical care. “It seems that a more grateful heart is indeed a more healthy heart, and that gratitude journaling is an easy way to support cardiac health,” wrote lead author Paul J. Mills, Ph.D., professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego. The study also found that gratitude contributed to spiritual well-being, which was associated with improved mood and better sleep.

This isn’t the first time researchers have discovered a positive association between thankfulness and an improved heart. A 1995 study published in the American Journal of Cardiology found that positive emotions and appreciation are linked with changes in heart rate variability. The new APA findings also saw heart rate variability changes in the patients who had a thankful outlook. The study results add to a growing list of reasons to express gratitude. Research has shown that thankfulness can increase optimism, strengthen your relationships, improve your immune system and even offset the effects of materialism. Now that is something to be grateful for; “A cheerful heart truly is good medicine.”

Both Proverbs I read earlier make the case that joy, gladness, and having a cheerful heart begin inside us and impacts how we see and experience life. A glad heart makes a smiling face while a sorrowful heart can break our spirit and leave us feeling flat. A recent article in The Boston Globe highlighted the work of “The happiness professor”: Amherst professor Catherine Sanderson who wants to help put happiness within reach of her audiences and her students too. (slides) Here are her ten key suggestions:

1. Keep a “gratitude journal.’’ Like the APA study I just referenced, she says the #1 thing to do is to record the small joys of everyday life. We do this so we’re constantly reminded of how much we have to be thankful for and joyful about.
2. Make a “gratitude visit. Write a letter expressing your appreciation for what someone else has done to change and shape your life, then read it to that person.
3. Change your behavior. Get enough sleep, exercise; read a book you love; spend time outside; meditate.
4. Smile (even when you aren’t happy). The mere act of smiling triggers physiological responses in your body in positive ways.
5. Perform random acts of kindness. Volunteer; donate to a charity; give a gift to a friend.
6. Find “your match.” Figure out your strengths and find ways to use them (in your job, in your community, in your family, in your church).
7. Keep things in perspective. Avoid over-reacting to the many lesser stresses of daily life.
8. Spend money on the right things. Focus on things like experiences (travel, tickets to the big game or a concert) and less on belongings (car, watch, purse).
9. Avoid comparisons. Comparing your own life to those of others (especially as portrayed in holiday letters and on social media) can lead to unwarranted depression and loneliness.
10. Build and maintain close relationships. Our relationships with family members, romantic partners, and friends have a substantial influence on our own happiness.

            As you hear those ten suggestions for happiness, how are you doing? How joyful are you feeling this morning? Did you hear something that you could add to your daily living? Sometimes we may make a distinction between happiness and joy in which happiness is more equated with our material or personal circumstances and joy is a deeper quality that draws its source from our relationship with God. Knowing that we are loved, forgiven, gifted, and called by God and remembering those things have nothing to do with our outward circumstances or even the ups and downs of life helps us have a cheerful heart. Obviously, when someone we love dies or when we experience a significant physical or personal set back, we’re not dancing in the streets about it. I’ve experienced both as have many of you and it isn’t fun or something we want to go through. Pain and grief are real and they must be met directly. Having a cheerful heart even in the face of life’s adversities can help. To me, Professor Sanderson’s list is trying to help people experience not just happiness but joy.

In Psalm 84 we hear about how people feel going to a very special place – a destination they might visit every year or only once in a lifetime. It wasn’t Disney World or Paris or Hawaii, it was the Temple in Jerusalem. Psalm 84 is about The Joy of Worship in the Temple. It oozes Joy, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Happy are those whose strength is in you, For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.”

Isn’t it great to hear verses from the Bible like that which describe so perfectly how we feel today about getting up and coming to worship at BBC? When you’re driving here on Sunday morning doesn’t your heart quicken as you see the building as you come around the corner or down the hill? Don’t you nearly shout with joy when you pull in? Don’t you almost run in from the parking lot, not because we’d ever be late for heaven’s sake, but just because we can’t wait to worship God and be with fellow pilgrims from all across the Cape and beyond? Well of course that’s the way we all feel every Sunday so I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

One of the things I really like in pilgrimage Psalms like Psalm 84 which are about going to worship the Lord and being in the Lord’s presence in the Temple is the sense of joy and gladness. I truly wish it was something we could capture and duplicate at BBC. Psalm 122:1 another song of Zion begins, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” It would be ideal if we came to worship, came to church, came to do whatever service we might be rendering or sharing in the Lord’s name with that sense of gladness. I hope you’re glad today to be in the house of the Lord. The psalms convey joy and gladness at coming to the house of the Lord because there we meet a God who is love who loves us and when you are in love, the emotion that you feel is joy. Joy is expressed and found throughout the Bible for a host of reasons, but the greatest is for our relationship with a loving God.

In John’s Gospel Jesus talks about why he came and he says it is so his joy may be in us and our joy may be full or complete. This surprises many people. Jesus speaks of joy not once or twice but three times in John 15-17. Three times Jesus speaks, not of an occasional burst of happiness but of complete joy. The first time he says (slide John 15:11), “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Jesus is speaking of our relationship with him. Jesus came so that his “joy may be in us, and that our joy may be complete.” As we are united with Jesus through worship, his word, prayer, and loving obedience the result in our lives will be joy. Jesus wants us to have the complete joy that comes from an intimate and lasting relationship with the loving and gracious God who gives us life.

If we’ve got the joy of Jesus down in our heart like some of us learned in the song when we were kids, it should show on our face. Dennis Prager in his book, Happiness Is a Serious Problem, shares this experience: “I once asked a deeply religious man if he considered himself a truly pious person. He responded that while he aspired to be one, he felt that he fell short in two areas. One of those areas, he said, was his not being a happy enough person to be considered truly pious. His point was that unhappy religious people reflect poorly on their religion and on their Creator. He was right; in fact, unhappy religious people pose a real challenge to faith. If their faith is so impressive, why aren’t these devoted adherents happy? There are only two possible reasons: either they are not practicing their faith correctly, or they are practicing their faith correctly and the religion itself is not conducive to happiness. Most outsiders assume the latter reason. Unhappy religious people should therefore think about how important being happy is – if not for themselves, then for the sake of their religion. Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.” ¹

Following Jesus is conducive to joy. Therefore if we practice our faith correctly, the fruit of joy will begin to grow and become increasingly evident in our lives over time. If we can learn how to have the joy of Jesus in our lives, through worship, hearing his word, prayer, and loving obedience; perhaps we will be able to face life, even the challenging and heart-breaking times, with an attitude that is marked by joy.

The second time Jesus speaks of Joy in (slide John 16:22), he says to his disciples, “So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” Having the joy of Jesus does not spare us from the hardships of life, for some people, it may actually increase them. All of us have pain in our lives of varying degrees and intensities – it’s how we cope while we’re enduring it that matters and reflects our faith or our lack of it. I am always struck by the fact that Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, written under circumstances of severe suffering, is also the most joyous of all his Letters.

The third time Jesus speaks of joy in his farewell discourse in John 17, Jesus is praying for us, not himself. Jesus wants his followers to understand that his death is not cause for sadness; it is his glorification because he is returning to the Father. Jesus prays that his followers will be one, even as Jesus and the Father are one, and he says (slide John 17:13), “I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in (or among) themselves.” In the Gospels, the arrival of Jesus is cause for joy and the departure of Jesus will bring joy as well.

For the Psalmists, the focus of their joy and gladness was on the presence of the Lord of hosts they experienced in the Temple in Jerusalem. For us, having the joy of Jesus comes from being united with Christ through our habits, attitudes, and decisions so that Jesus is increasing in us and our grumpy, angry, selfish self is decreasing. Having the joy of Jesus comes through praying for God’s Spirit to grow the fruit of joy within us in all circumstances. Finally, we can be encouraged knowing this is not only our prayer, but Jesus prayed and is still praying that we may have his complete joy in our lives. Jesus radiated joy; that’s part of what made him attractive to all kinds of people: children and adults, the troubled, the grieving, tax collectors, prostitutes, people from all walks of life. About the only people who didn’t like Jesus were the religious people who thought Jesus hung around with the wrong crowd, went to too many parties, and gave God a bad name. Think about this – the gospels record Jesus as breaking up every funeral he attended and turning it into a real surprise party!

Do you know what it is like in the presence of God? 1 Chronicles 16:27 says, “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling place.” Psalm 16:11 declares, “In your presence there is fullness of joy.” Now that is something to look forward to and to be joyful about!

Blessing: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

 

 

Questions for Reflection or Discussion

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 = No Joy and 10 = Full of Joy, how would you rate yourself today? What do you think are the reasons for rating yourself that way?

 

According to Proverbs 15:13 and 17:22, why is “a cheerful heart” important? What does choosing to have a cheerful heart do for us and to us?

 

The sermon mentions 10 things Amherst professor Catherine Sanderson states are important to joy, gratitude, and happiness – which of them are you already doing? What has your experience of doing them been like? Choose one or two you’re not practicing that you can begin and note your progress.

 

Discuss or reflect on this quote from Dennis Prager’s book, Happiness Is a Serious Problem, “Unhappy religious people should therefore think about how important being happy is – if not for themselves, then for the sake of their religion. Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.”

 

Jesus had a personality overflowing with joy and gladness. What about those of us who claim to be his followers?

 

How can the joy of Jesus be more a part of your daily living?

1 – Dennis Prager, Happiness Is A Serious Problem (Regan Books, 1998), 4.