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Have you experienced Joy

The man. The myth.

Have you ever experienced what Lewis calls joy?

Yes, and I think it is spiritually significant
33
92%
Yes, but I atatch no spiritual significance to it
0
No votes
No, I have never had the experience.
3
8%
 
Total votes : 36

Postby Pete » January 11th, 2007, 5:16 am

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Postby A#minor » January 11th, 2007, 11:18 pm

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Postby Jservic2 » September 18th, 2008, 6:06 am

I have foolishly even thought of death to end it! I do not think it is fair to call it suicide because it is not a serious thought to kill ones own life, but rather such a powerful thing that even life itself becomes secondary to it.
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Postby ami » September 19th, 2008, 9:18 am

I'm OK and I'm On My Way!
by Joyce Meyer

The expression “nobody’s perfect” is used or heard almost every day, but it’s true—I’m not perfect, you’re not perfect, nobody’s perfect. Hopefully, though, we’re all getting better and are on our way to perfection. The important thing to remember is that even though we’re not yet perfect, we’re still OK. Just because we haven’t arrived yet doesn’t mean that we’re not on our way.

It’s true that we all still have a long way to go. I used to get discouraged about how far I had to go, and it seemed like I was reminded of it every day, sometimes every hour. I carried a constant sense of failure—a feeling that I just wasn’t who I needed to be, I wasn’t doing good enough, and I needed to try harder. Yet when I did try harder, I only failed again.

I’ve now adopted a new attitude: “I’m not where I need to be, but thanks God I’m not where I used to be. I’m OK, and I’m on my way!” I now know with all my heart that God isn’t angry with me just because I haven’t arrived yet. He’s pleased that I’m pressing on and staying on the path. If you and I will just “keep on keeping on,” God will be pleased with our progress.

Keep walking the walk one step at a time. This is an important thing to remember. It’s true that we have to keep pressing on, but thank God we don’t have to hate or reject ourselves while we’re trying to get to our destination.

If I invited you to take a walk, you’d think I was crazy if I became angry after the first few steps because we hadn’t yet arrived at our destination. We can understand ordinary things like this, yet we have a difficult time understanding that God expects it to take some time for us to grow spiritually.

We don’t think there’s something wrong with one-year-old children because they can’t walk perfectly. They fall down frequently, but we pick them up, love them, bandage them if necessary, and keep working with them. Surely our heavenly Father can do even more for us than we do for our children.

The process is always difficult. Growing and learning is never easy, but the changes make us better people. We begin to think differently, then to talk differently, and finally, to act differently. This process develops in stages, and we must always remember that while it’s taking place, we can have the attitude, “I’m OK, and I’m on my way!”

Enjoy yourself while you’re changing. Enjoy where you are on the way to where you’re going. Enjoy the journey! Don’t waste all of your “now time” trying to rush into the future. Remember, tomorrow will have troubles of its own (Matthew 6:34).

Today you may be wrestling with a bad temper, thinking if you could just get freedom in this area, everything would be all right. But the thing is, God will then reveal something else that needs to be dealt with, and you’ll be back in that same frame of mind again, thinking, “If only I didn’t have this problem, I could be happy.” We must learn to look at these things in a new way.

We can be free to believe that we are, indeed, OK and on our way—not perfected yet, but pressing on. We can be free to enjoy life, enjoy God and enjoy ourselves. :whistle:
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Postby Tumnus's Books » September 24th, 2008, 1:28 am

"You are, in fact, Human?"
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Scents and Shadows of Heaven

Postby friendofaslan » September 27th, 2008, 2:31 am

Thanks for all your comments on this interesting topic. I am a Feeling and Intuitive on the MB. I can relate so much to Lewis’ descriptions of that longing and sweet piercing he had when being awed by the beauty of the little recreated “garden” when he was a boy or reading George McDonald for the first time.

For me, that sweet piercing came when I first gazed at the lochs and mountains of Skye, Scotland, as I sat on the bow of a boat. The crystal clear blue sky was the same color as the water. The mountains were bright green and heather-covered. I have never seen anything so beautiful in the 30 years since. The only moment that has ever come close was my baptism as a teenager 6 years prior to this trip; it was just as cleansing, peaceful, and blessed. Viewing the Scottish landscape was pure spiritual BLISS. It was absolute uber-clarity and being in the moment. Peace radiated from my head to my toes for hours and hours after. Of course, the Scots have a saying something like this, “After God made Scotland, he took what was left to make Heaven.” It felt like Heaven to me. I had to tear myself away and kept looking back even when leaving the pier after we docked. My eyes, heart, mind, and spirit couldn't get enough of this tangible Joy. I am thankful the glimpse was a long one. I was (and am) overjoyed to imagine Heaven is going to surpass all this glory.

Like many of you, those sweet piercings and longings are evoked by music or a profound sunrise or sunset. We even have glimpses of it in scenes from poignant books/films like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe or The Lord of the Rings when courage or sacrifice is displayed. As a college student, Frederick Beuchner baptized my imagination and showed me razor-sharp joy with his incredible stories like "The Ragman."

Goodness, Innocence, Beauty, Poignancy, Joy--all remind us there is a place where all of these glimpses will be fulfilled--where all the shadows will become light. :smile:
Member of the 2456317 Club. "How will you know? . . . Odd things they say--even their looks--will let the secret out. Keep your eyes open. Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?" - Professor Kirke in LWW
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Postby amanda m. » October 4th, 2008, 6:15 am

The question of personality and Lewis' joy is a good one. It caught me off gaurd, but I like it. (And maybe it's no surprise that I'm also a feeling, intuitive, introvert.)

My clearest and most poignant "joy" experiences happened during my childhood. At that point, the only way I could articulate it was to describe it as Deja Vu, but I knew it was different; it was accompanied with such a strong sense of something larger than life waiting just out of reach. (Something I knew I should understand and just couldn't...but something that could answer the great question of life, the universe, and everything.)

I thought I was insane until I encountered it in literature. (In L.M. Montgomery's "Emily of Blue Moon," of all places.) I always meant to return to this book because I don't think the experience was tied to anything spiritual.

When I first read Lewis' explanation, it made so much sense I didn't even question it. I'm sure it's a real spiritual experience, but it could still be tied to personality. Perhaps God uses those experiences to communicate with a certain type of people. Perhaps He uses different methods to touch different personalities. (Which might explain why so many of my friends look at me as if I have two noses every time I talk about it...)

But I will say I'm so thankful for those experiences. They were real. And no matter how much I find myself doubting, I can always turn back to them. And I know that something bigger than myself is fueling my thirst for what will come.
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Postby matdonna » October 7th, 2008, 1:10 am

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Re: Have you experienced Joy

Postby Phoenix Talon » January 7th, 2009, 3:01 am

For a few fleeting instances. It's something I long for more than anything else. Which is probably why I love reading C.S Lewis so much, he had similar experiences. :-)
"Are the gods not just?"
"Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were?" --Till We Have Faces
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NZ Singer songwriter Dave Dobbyn

Postby carol » February 22nd, 2009, 1:53 am

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Re: Have you experienced Joy

Postby Áthas » March 9th, 2009, 11:26 pm

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Re: Have you experienced Joy

Postby postodave » March 14th, 2009, 10:58 pm

Music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.
(T. S. Eliot)
So I drew my sword and got ready
But the lamb ran away with the crown
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Re: Have you experienced Joy

Postby Bluegoat » March 25th, 2009, 4:56 pm

I experienced this the day I decided I would become a Christian. It was a beautiful early summer day with a very green smell, and I was peeling parsnips. The earthy parsnip smell with the green smell seems to have triggered the feeling. Sometimes I get it from music.

I think perhaps it is the capacity for this feeling that is significant, and I think it is likely biological. And I think it is important that the feeling is confirmed by reason. Love moves us and reason carries us along.
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Re: Have you experienced Joy

Postby Áthas » March 25th, 2009, 6:53 pm

Somehow, I don't think it's necessarily tied to religion and I have to admit that it annoys me to see that most Christians seem to think only Christians can really know it or it must be the longing for Heaven. I don't think religion ever caused this for me.
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Re: Have you experienced Joy

Postby Stanley Anderson » March 25th, 2009, 10:14 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
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