Reaching towards joy
'Joy' the dictionary informs us is an intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness, or an instance of such feelings.
So, joy is a fleeting feeling, an emotion that comes and goes, enters and leaves, arrives and departs. Is this transitory function of life to be permanently impermanent?
True joy for any human is only found in the fulfillment of being exactly who we are created to be. Such gain is smothered when living for the approval of others, the pursuit of gold and/or agreement 'with the flesh' wins our days.
Jesus, our Lord, is the perfect model of that joy lived in life. He was found willing, when all other men would be found unwillling. It was joy He held steadfast for:
... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
True joy dies when we separate ourselves from the One who created us. .
Yet, there is a journey to real joy ... as Jesus trod.
Holy joy is the oil to the wheels of a christian's obedience. ~ Matthew Henry
POSTSCRIPT:
There may be joy in God when there is little joy from God. ~ Stephen Charnock