Unlocking Our Joy (GH # 29)

St. Andrew's, Bemerton, Wiltshire**

There's a song that I sang as a kid in church. You may have sung it too: "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." Repeat the last phrase twice and the whole thing once, ending with "down in my heart to stay." And therein lies the problem. As a Christian, I have access to so much joy, most especially the joy of my salvation, but it tends to reside deep down and can be hard to bring up on a frequent basis.

A couple of Sundays ago, the pastor preaching at my church mentioned the need to "unlock our joy," a phrase that instantly recalled for me the opening line from George Herbert's "Bunch of Grapes": "Joy, I did lock thee up." Now, in Herbert's poem, the narrator's having his joy "locked up" is a good thing, and he's now upset because "some bad man" has let his joy escape. But remembering this line got me thinking about other mentions of joy in Herbert's poems.

Take "The Glance," for instance. In this slightly more mystical poem, the speaker recalls what a thrill and joy he originally felt at God's glance upon him, when he was in the throes of a newfound relationship with God, that flush of new love. However, as we know from experience, live the Christian life long enough and trials will come. "Since that time" of new sweetness," continues Herbert, "many a bitter storm / My soul hath felt, ev'n able to destroy" (lines 9-10). 

"The Glance" covers both problem and solution. The problem: life's storms drown out our original joy with bitter sorrows. The key to the solution: remember the joy of the best times in one's Christian walk, when God's countenance (from the believer's viewpoint) seemed to be smiling down, and one felt joy. "But still Thy sweet original joy," writes Herbert, "... did work within my soul" and "control" the poet's "surging griefs" (13-15). In other words, the joy, already dwelling deep down, was brought back up to revive his soul and temper his sorrow in the storms of life.

A couple of other poems from George Herbert that address joy (and hint at other aspects of the solution of unlocking ours) are "A True Hymn" and "The Call." "A True Hymn" opens by reminding us that the Lord is "My joy, my life, my crown!" (1). The key to unlock joy here is remembering both present and future rewards: the Christian has been made alive in Christ and will be rewarded with the crown of life in heaven. "The Call" contains a similar exultation by the poet in its last stanza: "Come my joy, my love, my heart" (9), concluding with "Such a heart as joys in love" (12). Perhaps the key to unlock joy here is tapping in to the heart, remembering the experience of God's love and our love for Him. 

No doubt there are other keys to unlock the Christian's often elusive joy, but here are a few we can gain from Herbert.

** My photo is of the entrance to Herbert's little church outside Salisbury. When I dropped by to visit in 2006, the door was locked. It's one of those ancient doors with a massive keyhole and a massive key, which I had to hunt down from the (also ancient, but so kind) church caretaker that day. It took two trips to the house down the street, a long waiting period, and enduring a torrential rainstorm before I saw that church key. When it opened this precious church, that old-fashioned key certainly brought me much joy!