Have you noticed how often products are marketed using images of joy, fun and celebration? Advertisers know we all could use–and desperately want–more happiness and joy in our lives.

But happiness is fleeting. It comes and goes based on our circumstances. The happiness of the new car or clothing or toy soon wears off and we need something else to make us happy. 

I’m using ‘joy’ to describe something more durable; something less dependent on circumstances. It’s deeper and less giddy than superficial happiness. It lives in our core, and it flows from what we intentionally put in our core. 

Both happiness and joy come from, and are influenced by, our serving. If you love to bake, it makes you happy to serve your family or your kids’ school by making a favorite dish for tonight’s dinner or cookies for the bake sale. If you love trains, it makes you happy to serve by teaching fourth graders the history and impact of railroads. Serve in ways that tie to our interests and strengths is a good practice; it’s fun and it make us happy.

Where happiness is unreachable, inner joy is a lifesaver.

But we also serve others in ways that are hard. Our employment is one way we serve, but many find themselves in jobs that are difficult, dangerous or horribly boring. Even the most loving of parents find some parts of childcare difficult and unpleasant. And some ways we serve, such as caring for elderly relatives, come to us by necessity, rather than choice. Where happiness is unreachable, inner joy is a lifesaver.

What does it mean to serve joyfully?

When I think of people who serve with joy, it’s not the loudest and most flamboyant that come to mind. I think of those who are realists, but who are also positive; who acknowledge challenges, but are unflappable. They can smile even when things are boring; they don’t despair when things are dark. They pay attention to people, notice those who struggle, and respond with encouragement. They may not be the leader, but they help hold a team together and quietly carry it to a goal. 

Some people are born with those qualities; most of us are not. So how do we serve more joyfully when circumstances are hard; when tasks are challenging; when our energy is low; when others are crabby and we are too?

It mattered how I fed my core

We learn best from each other, and I’d love to hear what helps you serve more joyfully. Use the comments feature or contact me to dialogue on this. My crucible was nine years of caregiving. I had it better than most caregivers; the one I cared for was good and kind and relatively healthy. But there were difficult and unpleasant tasks; and sharing my home and time all day every day was not easy. I learned that joy came from what was in my core. So I worked at feeding my core these two things. 

1. Gratitude

Thankfulness nurtures joy. Deliberately taking time to note things you are grateful for is recommended by so many for so many good reasons. One of those reasons is that it feeds joy in all of life, including serving. Gratitude does not happen often on its own. Our materialistic society works hard at building what comes naturally to us–a focus on what we lack than rather than all we have. Gratitude must be nurtured. If not practiced, it gets rusty. 

Everything we are thankful for comes to us as a gift from God. Time spent praising God, whether in community with other believers or in one-on-one time with him, has always been an central activity of God’s people. It has the practical effect of building up gratitude, and with it, joy.  

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1

2. Freedom and peace that flow from God’s grace

For 3,000 years, Jewish people have annually celebrated Passover, when God gave them freedom from slavery in Egypt. Like the Passover lamb, Jesus gave his life so that all people could be free from the death and alienation brought by our sin and brokenness. 

Freedom is not just a theological concept. It’s an everyday reality.

That freedom is not just a theological concept. It’s an everyday reality. Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus–not evil, not our failures or weaknesses, not disability, not government, not poverty. These things feel like chains that trap us and weigh us down, and they certainly can limit us. But they cannot keep us from God’s love, God’s grace and God’s power. Those realities are our guaranteed gift when we turn to God and ask for his help. All these earthly chains are temporary, short-term. As followers of Jesus, we look forward to a perfect and eternal freedom. 

Those truths bring peace. As I serve, I don’t have to prove myself a good caregiver or parent or employee or worker. I don’t even have to take myself particularly seriously. My effort has meaning and it makes a difference, whether I see evidence of it or not, because it is accepted by my Father who set me free. That peace and freedom fills our core with joy.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. Isaiah 55:12

Helping others serve with joy

Joy is infectious. We get joy from others and our joy rubs off on others. If you’re a leader of volunteers, you have a lot of responsibility and it’s easy to lose your joy. I pray your core may be filled with the gratitude, freedom and peace of God’s grace. You also influence the joy level of the volunteers you lead. Don’t think of this as another burden–”oh, great, another responsibility!” Simply consider the joy-level you see among your volunteers; doing so might just increase your own joy-level! If there’s reason for concern, there might be something useful in “Where’s the Joy?”

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Phil 4:4

Cheer Up!

When my joy level is low, when it’s hard to motivate myself to tasks that are challenging or just plain mundane, I love to go back to what Mark tells us the crowd said to blind Bartimaeus:

 “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Mark 10:49

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Worksheet: More Joyful Everyday Serving

Join the conversation by commenting below or by contacting Karen.

Also in this series

– More Intentional (&Less Crazy) Everyday Serving
Worksheet, More Intentional Everyday Serving
– More Impactful (and Less Ho-Hum) Everyday Serving
Worksheet, More Impactful Everyday Serving
– More Faith-Full (and Less Disjointed) Everyday Serving
Worksheet, More Faith-Full Everyday Serving
– “More Serving? Or Better Serving?”
Worksheet: A Look at My Serving

Related Resources
– Where’s the Joy?
– What’s Your Joy Level?