Pixar’s Inside Out 2 film has taken over my algorithm. I am constantly getting recommended links about the film and fun Buzzfeed quizzes to take. It turns out my dominant emotion is Sadness. If you have known me in my early twenties, you’d probably be surprised. I was the college girl who always had a smile on her face, jumping in with an optimistic perspective. One of my favorite memories is coming home one day, in college, and telling my roommate that it looked like it was going to rain. Then the two of us hurried outside, dancing and singing in the entirety of the rain. In fact, while a summer camp counselor, I was christened as Sunny D because I was always smiling. 

In some ways, I am still that girl. I am still that girl who smiles and sees things on the bright side. I am still that girl who dances in the rain. I still see joy in the darkness, but I also have gained life experiences that colored what I have seen. Spoiler for Inside Out 1, at the end of the movie, the emotions learned that every emotion is important and that it does not do well to have one dominant emotion. Two emotions can converge and create a new emotion. Example, Joy and Sadness can create melancholy.

I have not forgo Joy, instead I have allowed room for other emotions to help support Joy. In the second film, Joy gave a powerful mini monologue about how exhausting it can be to be joyful all the time, to have it all be put together. Have you ever felt like that before? Ever felt like you had to be something and if you show anything less, people would find you out as a fake? Like, you are the “smart one” or the “sweet one” or the “happy one.” It labeled you. It keeps us stuck and I don’t think that’s the pure joy that James wrote about in James 1:2-3.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 

Raised your hand if you ever had a trial or hardship? I’m raising both hands.

Raised your hand if you ever said, “Thank you, Lord, for this trial! I have so much joy!” Chances probably not, if you have, it was laced with sarcasm. It is difficult to find joy when you struggle. Your emotions are a mixed. Maybe you are looking for a new job and you have Anger, feeling that indignation of where you currently are. But you have a friend who comes by and offered you support, so that makes you Joyful.

Or maybe, you are in grief. You are Sad. Someone died and your heart yearns for them, but you have Joy that they are no longer suffering. Maybe a new baby was born a couple days after and you have Joy for the baby, but also Disgusted that you are forgetting your Sadness. But then Anger for not being Joyful for the new baby.

I think that’s pure joy. Having all those emotions and being able to name them, being able greet each emotion, and say, “There is Sadness. Oh, hi, Anger. Disgust, I cleared up a spot for you. Oh, hello, Anxiety, take this chill pill and relax on this recliner. Joy, right on cue.” When you are able to name each emotion, put them in their right spots, then it paves a way for faith to be built in your trials.

Recently, my church did a sermon over this verse. In my lifegroup, we discussed what it means to have joy in our trials and if we recognized if our faith is being tested. The consensus was that more likely than not, we don’t recognize the tests’ purpose until later. As we talked about how frustrating it is when people give you platitudes like “God is with you” and “it’s just not time,” I wondered out loud if that’s the joy. Joy in the knowing people are there for you and joy in knowing that people want to comfort you, so they lean on the only thing they know what to say – the Bible. Even if it in the time, not so comforting. One day it will be. Their hearts are in the right place.

It’s like in Job. When I was younger, I rolled my eyes at Job’s friends who tried to encourage and comfort Job with platitudes and what were in their seminary notes. Now, I wonder if those friends were lost in what to say, so they frantically looked through their notes from the course “Grieving 101.” Maybe their hearts were in the right place, but the words failed to encourage Job. 

All throughout the Bible, joy is mentioned and joy is mentioned next to times of desperation. In Psalms 87:7, it states, Singers and dancers alike will say, “My whole source of joy is in you.” The next chapter is about a cry of desperation. Nehemiah led the exiles back into Jerusalem and were rebuilding the walls. The Israelites were probably feeling a little hopeless or lost, no doubt looking at Nehemiah to tell them what to do. They were exiled from the home and now they’re back, but it felt different. After seven months and the Israelites were settling, they came together to read the Law. In it, it was said how the day was holy to the Lord our God. It instructed them not to mourn or weep. In one translation I had this next part was in parenthesis, but some has it written as if it were part of the monologue. It was – 

Do not grieve, because the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)

Then it said, the Levites (the priests) quieted all the people saying, “Be still since today is holy. Don’t grieve.’ Then the people celebrated because they understood what was said to them.

Imagine that. Imagine, you had to escape your homeland and when you returned, it looked different. You’re different. That Starbucks on the corner, the one you and your friends frequented, is no longer there. Nor is the friendly cashier at your local supermarket. Wouldn’t you feel like grieving? Maybe some anger? But even in the Law, God’s Word, it said joy is the strength of the Lord. No matter the trials you have gone through or the dark valleys, God never left your side.

Going back to James, I think using joy as the strength of the Lord is recognizing we do not know the next step. But God does. To have joy in trials is to say “I trust you, God.” To be able to say that, we let a little amount of joy in and it is like light, it would soon take over. That is when you can go out and dance in the rain.

I still can’t tell you why we face the trials that we do or when you are supposed to know what it is testing you. But I do know this, if you at least try to dance in the rain. Joy will soon follow. After all joy is the strength of the Lord. 

Elizabeth