The Joy That Finds You

Threshold

There is a joy that does not wait
for things to be fixed,
for prayers to be answered,
for the world to make sense.

It arrives quietly,
like a dawn you did not earn.

The Pause

Before you begin,
let your striving rest.

Joy is not a finish line.
It is a visitation.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” — Isaiah 9:2

We often imagine joy as the prize that arrives
after the hard part is over —
after things resolve, after wounds close,
after hope finally outweighs sorrow.

But Advent tells a different story.

Joy does not wait for the world to brighten.
Joy enters while the world is still dim.

Solomon understood how fragile earthly happiness is.
He watched laughter fade and pleasure leak through the cracks of the soul.
He named it honestly: “All is vapor.”
He was right — the joy we manufacture cannot hold.
But the joy that comes from God was never ours to break.

The Wisdom found “under the sun” grows weary of the chase.
But the Wisdom revealed beyond the sun descends —
not as emotion, not as reward, but as Presence.

This is the scandal of Advent joy:
It is not something we find.
It is Someone who finds us.

Joy came down into a manger,
into the unprepared corners of the world,
into the midnight hours of poverty, questions, and silence.
Joy came down to people
who did not feel joyful,
who did not feel holy,
who did not know they were beloved.

And still — it came.
True joy is not the feeling that everything is well.
It is the knowing that God is with you when things are not.

It rises softly from the surrendered places —
from the bottom of the ladder, where striving breaks open and grace begins from the House of Mourning,
where tears become windows and love becomes real,
from the silence where understanding ends
and being known begins.

Joy does not deny sorrow.
Joy sanctifies it.

It does not erase your humanity.
It shares it.

Even now, the light dawns —
not because the night has ended,
but because Christ has stepped into it.

Advent joy is this:
You are not alone in the dark.
And you never were.

Under the Sun / Beyond the Sun

You searched for joy
and found only wind.

But Joy
was already searching for you.

It entered your silence,
lit a candle in your shadow,
and whispered,

“Rejoice —
I am here.”