Sorrow. Pain. Companions of mine often synonymous with killers of joy. Thieves. They rise and take what is promised to be “new every morning,” but when dawn breaks mourning lingers on and on. As I grow older, a little wiser, I realize how false these accusations are. In truth, no one or nothing can take my joy, I alone, give it away.

Infertility remains loyal to me after 18 years, yet joy, well…it has waned and even vanished at times under the darkness of depression. Unfortunate, has been my choice, to let circumstances sway my ability to chose joy, come what may.

Jesus told his followers, in a time of desperate sorrow, when they feared and couldn’t quite grasp how they were losing him, “So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

It is the “see you again” that instills the greatest joy no man can muster on his own.  The resurrection of Christ revealed, brought a joy to the the disciples that God, himself, says no one will take away because His power over death has made them more than conquerors.  Joy is found in seeing, believing and knowing Jesus.

Access to that joy is mine and yours and everyone and anyone who has been filled with Christ.

So why do I continue to act in such a way that life can steal my joy? Circumstances can snatch my hope? Or that people have authority to “bring me down?”

No one can take Jesus (my joy) from me, only I, can let it go or fade.  

I choose here and now, that my joy is no longer up for grabs, come what may, I have a “Joy that no one (or nothing) can take away.