Hooray for Joy!

When I was a young man and left home for college, I left behind the Pentecostal church of my youth. Parts of it, like its insistence of an inerrant literal interpretation of the Bible and its fear based message of either accepting Jesus Christ as the one and only means of salvation or burning in hell, I gladly dumped in the dumpster labeled “Irrational Beliefs”. 

However, parts of my Pentecostal experience would never fully leave me.  One was the unshakable feeling that I had experienced an ever present God of Power and Might and Love, and the deep feeling of joy that came with that.   Our worship services were filled with joyful uplifting songs and music.  The messages were passionate and loud and peppered with calls from the congregation of “Amen!” or “Hallelujah!”  There were periodic outbreaks of glossolalia.  Prayers were fervent with hands lifted in the air and voices loud in praise and prayer. Prayers for healing were affirmative and especially impassioned.

After wandering in the wilderness for fifteen years, exploring other religions and spiritual traditions, especially their mystical branches, I decided it was time to reconnect with my Christian roots and so began to visit other Christian denominations, looking for a church more in alignment with my liberal views. What I found at first was dull, boring and lifeless.  Where was the joy and the praise and life that I had experienced in the churches I grew up in? 

And then I discovered Unity in Austin, Texas.  Back then, in 1983, it was the only Unity church in Austin and it filled up in two services and overflowed to the outside deck where the service could be watched on a large screen television.  The singing was joyous and the message was uplifting.  I felt and experienced God. And joy was there.

Webster's Dictionary defines "joy" as "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires." I hesitated to write about joy in this blog. Theology (“thinking” about faith) seems to be the polar opposite to joy (a feeling or experience of faith).  However, I remembered that in John 15:11 Jesus said that what he taught was taught so that his joy would be in us and our joy would be complete. I also believe that my Metaphysical Christianity is very much an integration of “head” and “heart” and joy is a keystone to its theology.  Metaphysical Christianity affirms well-being, success and attaining the desires of our heart. It affirms our connection with Spirit and each other.  It affirms the infinite faith, strength, power, wisdom, zeal, life, love, imagination, understanding, will, order and peace available to all of us as a result of our oneness with Spirit. For me this is a great vision.

In his book, Glimpses of Truth, Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd asks the question,
“If a greater vision of life captures the mind, empowering people to live more effectively, does this not provide the strongest of all religious systems, i.e., a comprehensive worldview integrating heart and head?”   I think it does and joy is its evidence.