Joy of Youth Ministry

A student wrote this to me yesterday & it was a huge encouragement to me. It encouraged me because here is a student wrestling with their faith and they are willing to be vulnerable in sharing it. We have been focusing on ADVENT with the aspects of Peace, Hope, Joy & Love.

Joy
What is joy? To me, joy is the thing that causes love, peace, and hope. Especially hope. I know that I am happy and joyful, when I have hope that my life will turn out to be something greater, or even that some of my life will turn out how I want it to be. Like when I found out that the boy I liked liked me back, I had this spark of hope that gave me this insurmountable amount of joy. It’s so sad to me that I get joy from little, stupid things like a boy liking me. But it also makes me think that it’s the little nice things other people do just out of the kindness of their hearts that makes me really happy. Like my best friend bringing me a pack of gum just because she knows that I’m obsessed with it. Or when my friend I thought I lost texted me asking how I was. I believe that the big things that might seem small to other people, but are huge to you also bring on joy. Like that long lost best friend asking you if you’re ok because she saw those tears silently slipping out of your eyes during the church sermon on love. Or like the time I talked to my friend for an hour pouring out my heart to her. Telling her that I had been doing some things I know I shouldn’t be doing. Being able to tell her that the reason I was crying during the church sermon on love was because I hadn’t felt that love that the bible was describing, and because that love seems nonexistent. Just finally being able to say something my heart had been screaming to tell somebody for so long brought me this endless joy that lasted for days. I think that joy is brought in a billion different ways, and I also believe that it is taken away a bunch of different ways. My joy is taken away from me so easily. I think that might be because I don’t really have a lot of joy in my life, so that when one little thing happens and then a day later it’s taken away, I’m sad again. I know that’s because I only have temporary joy, I don’t have the real kind of joy you get from God. That kind of joy seems right at the tips of my fingers, but I still can’t obtain it. I think that’s because of my fear of joy. For me, the fear of actually having an abundance of joy prevents me from having any joy. I know that’s confusing, but basically I’m scared of being truly happy, so I just let that feeling come and go as it wants. Joy isn’t one of those words that’s tossed around a lot, because there isn’t a whole lot of it in this world. But I firmly believe that every single one of us, follower of Jesus or not, has the power to bring joy to other people’s lives. I think that if we all loved like them, we would bring joy to this community like it has never seen before. We all have the power to make people happy. So why don’t we do it?