{"id":821,"date":"2018-05-09T10:44:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T14:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/?p=821"},"modified":"2018-05-09T10:21:48","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T14:21:48","slug":"there-is-no-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/there-is-no-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is No Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo copyright \u00a92018 David J Crone. All rights reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What brings you joy? What holds you back from experiencing it?<\/p>\n

Most of us have participated in some form of an exercise designed to help us let go of a deeply held fear or concern. One method that many people have experienced is to write the fear or concern onto a piece of paper and then throw that paper into a fire, allowing the flames to symbolically consume whatever it was that was written on the paper.<\/p>\n

Several weeks ago, during lent, I attended an appropriately somber church service on Maundy Thursday. After the service, I made my way through a series of stations for further reflection. At one of these stations, people were encouraged to write a concern onto a Post-It note and stick it to the cross, leaving it there as a way of releasing it and letting go of that concern.<\/p>\n

As I sat there, pondering what to write, I glanced up and saw a note someone else had left. It said, “There is no joy.”<\/p>\n

Those words struck me deeply.<\/p>\n

I think a lot about joy. Joy is my purpose. Joy is at the heart of this blog. Joy drives nearly everything that I do.<\/p>\n

At its core, the whole “Work Should Be Fun” concept is about joy.<\/p>\n

I can understand not feeling happy. I can understand feeling sadness. I can understand many things. But, I can’t contemplate a life without joy.<\/p>\n

Joy runs deep. Even in sadness, anger, or frustration, there can be joy.<\/p>\n

To me, sadness is not the opposite of joy. Sad is the opposite of happy. Both are surface level sensations of the moment. They come and go.<\/p>\n

Joy is eternal. It is deeply rooted. I find joy and hope to be more closely linked than joy and happiness.<\/p>\n

The absence of hope is despair. So, for someone to say, “There is no joy,” says to me that they feel utter despair. They lack hope.<\/p>\n

Without hope, we might as well sit down and give up.\u00a0Hope keeps us going, even when things look bleak.<\/p>\n

Joy and hope are inextricably connected.<\/p>\n

Do you see the joy around you? It is everywhere. It is especially visible in this season of springtime. Take a moment to look around and see it. Then find a way to share it with others.<\/p>\n

Take a moment to connect with another person. Walk down the hall, into the next cubicle, or talk with the person at the cash register. Share a few words.\u00a0Smile. See the beauty that is all around. For just a moment, ignore the trash in the roadside ditch, look beyond the dirty dishes piling up in the sink, look away from the pile of unread emails in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Experience joy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What brings you joy? What holds you back from experiencing it? Most of us have participated in some form of an exercise designed to help us let go of a deeply held fear or concern. One method that many people have experienced is to write the fear or concern onto a piece of paper and … Continue reading There Is No Joy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[13,52,5,9,8,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}