Joyful, Joyful

From Sister Act 2

[Lauryn Hill]
Joyful, Joyful
Lord, we adore Thee
God of glory
Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee
Hail Thee as the sun above
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness
Drive the dark of doubt away
Giver of immortal gladness
Fill us with the light
Fill us with the light
Oh, fill us with the light of day......

[Choir]
Joyful, Joyful
Lord, we adore Thee
God of glory
Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee
Hail Thee as the sun above
Melt the clouds of sin, sin and sadness
Drive the dark of doubt away
Drive it away
Giver of immortal gladness
Fill us
Fill us with the light of day
Light of day!

[Rap]
(Check the rhyme)
Joyful, Joyful
Lord we adore Thee
An' in my life
I put none before Thee
Cuz since I was a youngster
I came to know
That you was the only way to go
[switch rapper]
So I had to grow an' come to an understandin'
That I'm down with the King so now I'm demandin'
That you tell me who you down with, see
Cuz all I know is that I'm down with G-O-D
You down with G-O-D?
(Yeah, you know me)
You down with G-O-D?
(Yeah, you know me)
You down with G-O-D?
(Yeah, you know me)
Who's down with G-O-D?
(Everybody)

[4 girls]
Come and join the chorus
The mighty, mighty chorus
Which the morning stars begun
The Father of love is reigning over us

[Lauryn Hill] Right away

[Choir]
What have you done for Him lately?
Ooh, ooh, ooh yeah
What have you done for Him lately?

He watches over everything
So we sing

Joyful, Joyful
Lord, we adore Thee
God of glory
Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee
Hail Thee as the sun above
Melt the clouds of sin, sin and sadness
Drive the dark of doubt away
Drive it away
Giver of immortal gladness ([Lauryn Hill] won't you)
Fill us ([Ryan Toby] Fill us with the light of day, Lord, fill us)
Fill us ([Ryan Toby] oh we need You, yes we do, fill us)
Fill us ([Ryan Toby] yeah..., oh, oh yeah)
Fill us ([3 guys] with the light of day, Lord)
....
([Lauryn Hill] We need you, come right away,
we need you, need you today, we need you,
I'm here to say fill us, fill us, fill us, fill us...)

Fill us with the light of day ([Lauryn Hill] oh, yeah)
Light of day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The topic for this week in Awakenings is joy. The song served as a jumping off point.

My experience with spirituality has often shown me that living with and understanding pain can bring spiritual growth, just as appreciating little daily joys can strengthen faith.
Having Had a Spiritual Awakening…, p. 159, copyright 1998, Limited use with express written permission, AFG, Inc.



I had a difficult time with this week’s topic, not because of the topic itself but because it is hard to find a share that sums up my feelings in one paragraph.

Several things spring to mind. I had a series of synchronistic (is that a word?) moments after reading the topic.

First, I remembered that I had journaled on the topic of joy two years ago when I needed to keep my mind focused on gratitude. I dug out my old journal to see what reading I could use. None were just one paragraph.

Second, I thought about the phrase “happy, joyous and free” and what that means to me. The phrase means far more to me now that I am in recovery. I’m not sure if I’d ever heard it before. But I believe my feelings about those words were probably far different than what they are now. A song springs to mind. I’m not sure what the name of it is. It’s on an album my mother has by Joe Reid. There’s a verse in it that talks about “how can you express relief in being found if you’ve never lost your way?” In some ways that is how I feel about recovery. How could I ever know that what I felt before was not happiness, joy or freedom if I was clueless to how oppressed I really was?

Then, the phrase, “joy cometh in the morning” came to me and, like the good researcher that I am, I had to go looking for whence it came. I found it in the book of Psalms. Then there is also a poem by that title that summarizes what that particular chapter of Psalms is about. The poem, Joy Cometh in the Morning, is written by D. A. Boskovich. It speaks of having to go through some terrifying, dark times which lead to joy. To my way of thinking that is about the valleys that we go through in order to grow spiritually. I have certainly had my share of valleys.

Next, I happened to catch Sister Act 2 on TV this weekend. I love Whoppi Goldberg. I love the idea of the underdog. I love the idea of choir competitions. They sang, among other things, Joyful, Joyful mixing in just about every musical genre known to man to best place the spotlight on the talent of their school’s choir. I was fascinated by how they took Janet Jackson’s song, What Have You Done for Me Lately?, and reworded it to fit their primary song. My thinking wrapped around that in several ways and I meditated on the ideas that came to mind.

What followed was mass. I thought of the Passion of Christ. Maybe my thinking went there because I am about to be confirmed into the Catholic church or maybe it went there because Easter is just two weeks away. But suddenly the idea of awe and joy being one and the same came to mind. They aren’t the same. They are very different but I believe one leads to the other.

I thought about the Christmas Carols that we sing. What about Joy to the World and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen? One proclaims the arrival of the messiah and the other speaks of “comfort and joy”. I thought about the songs we have sung during Lent and the ones I sang at sunrise services when I was a little girl.

I thought about my search for a Higher Power. I thought about the awe of creation and the joy of celebrating it.

Then I did a little more research. I found something that said “awe + gratitude = joy”. It all made sense to me then.

So then I got out of my analytical self (I know you are relieved to hear that) and I thought about the latest snow we received on Friday night and early Saturday morning. I was in awe of the white noise that accompanied the blanket of snow. Snow is such a rare occurrence in the South that we stand in amazement of it so much so that we are unprepared when it arrives. The snow always stops everything. No one can drive effectively in it. Schools close, businesses open late and close early, etc. We are in awe of this weather phenomenon and yet we enjoy it at the same time. The childlike qualities come out of all of us if there is enough of it. We think of building snowmen or having snowball fights or making snow cream.

I also looked at relationships. I am always in awe of this thing we call unconditional love. It means that I have relationships based on nothing other than our existence. In these friendships there is nothing that I can say or do nor anything that I have that has made the people love me and it works quite the reverse as well. We love each other because we can clearly see a reflection of ourselves. We love each other just because we exist. That is awe inspiring and it brings me great joy.