THINGS ANGELS SAY GREAT JOY This is a season full of joyful opportunities. What are some things that have happened during Advent that have given you joy? ENCOURAGE RESPONSES Duchenne smile The Duchenne smile expresses true joy with these distinctive features: A smile, raising the lips at each corner of the mouth, and The muscle that circles the eye contracts. This: o pulls down the eyebrows and the skin below the eyebrows, o pulls up the skin below the eye, and o raises the cheeks. Background: While conducting research on the physiology of facial expressions in the mid-19th century, French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne identified two distinct types of smiles. A Duchenne smile involves contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi muscle (which raises the cheeks and forms crow's feet around the eyes) More recent research suggests that smiling in which the muscle around the eye contracts, raising the cheeks high (Duchenne smiling), is uniquely associated with positive emotion. -------------- FROM emotionalcompetency.com: Definitions Related Terms Making progress toward your goals Impending gain A desirable event or outcome has occurred English language terms for various forms of joy and pleasure include: amusement, bliss, happiness, joyous, carefree, jubilant, exultant, cheerful, playful, amused, fun, glad, gay, gleeful, jolly, jovial, delighted, enjoyment, euphoric, ecstatic, thrilled, elated, enraptured, comfort, contentment, harmony, satisfaction, and triumphant. Gratification is a deep satisfaction gained from becoming totally absorbed in a complex activity or by working toward meaningful goals. Zest, a joyous enthusiasm, has synonyms: enthusiasm, zeal, excitement, thrill, and exhilaration. Paul Ekman provides this rich list of distinct enjoyable emotions: Sensory pleasures: Including pleasure from each of our five emotions such as seeing a sunset, hearing beautiful music, feeling a caring touch or sensual pleasure, tasting good food, and smelling a flower. Amusement: Laughing at a joke and having lots of fun expressed our amusement and simple joy. Contentment: All is right in the world, and there is nothing else we feel we need to do. 1
Excitement: Intense interest, tempting fear with daring and exhilarating activities, rapid changes, or new challenges can cause the intense joy of excitement. Relief: We feel relief when our frustration or fear has changed for the better Wonderment: Wow! You experience something unusual, incomprehensible, and nearly overwhelming. You may get goose bumps, a tingling in the shoulders and back of the neck and you may shake your head in disbelief. Wonder is similar to awe, but lacks the element of fear sometimes associated with awe. Ecstasy: An intense and profound feeling of joy. This may be brought about by a truly satisfying sexual experience, the wonder of nature, or deep meditation. Fiero: This is an Italian word describing an intense sense of accomplishment from extending yourself and reaching a life long goal. Examples include winning an Olympic medal, or making a discovery worthy of a Nobel prize. Naches: This is a Yiddish word that describes the intense pride a parent feels for accomplishments of their children. The parent feels naches when the child feels fiero. Elevation: This is the warm feeling you get from seeing unexpected acts of human kindness. These experiences are often referred to as uplifting. Gratitude: This is appreciation for an altruistic and beneficial gift. Schadenfreude: This German word is similar to the English word Gloating. It refers to the pleasure you may feel about the suffering or bad luck of someone you dislike. Happy for You The terms listed above describe being happy for yourself; you have made progress toward your goal. A related but distinct emotion is being happy for someone else; we are pleased about an event desirable for another. Words we use to describe this include: delighted-for, happy-for, and pleasedfor. Related Moods and Traits Feeling happy describes a mood that lasts for minutes, hours, or days. This describes the foreground of your feelings. Well-being describes your longer-term assessment of how well you are doing overall in your life. This describes the background of your feelings, and affects how you react to the foreground events. Joyous Events Many events universally bring people joy. When resulting from autonomous choice, these include: reunions with people you are attached to, sexual relations, birth of a child, and being with a loved one. Benefits and Dangers of Joy 2
Joy rewards us for making progress toward our goals. It is the limbic gold star we get for making gains. This contrasts and complements the negative emotions (fear, anger, jealousy, envy, hate, disgust, guilt, shame, sadness) that use negative sanctions such as pain to direct us away from loss and danger. The danger of joy is that it tempts us to seek pleasure at the expense of gratification. We may be tempted to pursue an impulse rather than a goal that supports our values. We may become addicted to cheap thrills and get detoured from a more gratifying journey in life. Authentic Happiness The distinction between pleasure (hedonism) and gratification (eudaimonia) is important. Pleasure is easy: eat chocolate, see a movie, listen to your favorite music, go dancing, go shopping, gossip, go to a party, go to the beach, visit a water park, or do whatever is you consider fun. Money can buy pleasure, but it cannot buy gratification. Gratification is more difficult because you have to do the the hard work of increasing your stature and well-being. Gratification is a blend of pleasure and pride. The book Authentic Happiness describes in detail the following actions for increasing your gratification: Move beyond the past Don't be mislead to believe that the events of your childhood determine your present behavior. Although limbic attractors are created throughout your life, they are not straightjackets and you retain your free will. Exercise your autonomy and take responsibly for all you do from now on. Increase your gratitude about the many good things in your life. Take pleasure from the many good things in your past, present, and future. Express your gratitude to people you love, respect, and appreciate who have helped you in the past. Express your gratitude for waking up this morning, generous and loyal friends, your determination and special talents, devoted parents, good health, good books, a beautiful sunset, the Internet, chocolate, and anything else that adds enjoyment to your life. Set yourself free and remove your burden of unresolved anger by forgiving the people you have been resenting. Attain an accurate optimism about the future Pessimists believe that the natural order of things is chaotic, destructive, frustrating, negative, and full of dangers. When good things happen, pessimists believe it is a rare exception. Challenge and dispute this pessimistic viewpoint to arrive at a more accurate assessment. Optimists believe the world is orderly, manageable, positive, and full of possibilities. When problems arise, these represent temporary setbacks and reasonable challenges to overcome. Optimists are generally healthier and live longer than pessimists. But don't get carried away with the optimism and lose touch with reality. Continue to look at the evidence to make your choices and judgments. Don't fall victim to false hopes and the bad choices they can lead to. Strive for accuracy; it is often found at a realistic balance between optimism and pessimism. Enjoy the present Increase your pleasure by: 1) pacing pleasurable events to avoid habituation and get maximum enjoyment from each, 2) savoring pleasurable experiences, and 3) mindfully observing and focusing on the present. Increase your gratification by: 1) engaging in complex activities that totally absorb you, and 2) pursuing meaningful goals. 3
Scripture: JOY passages in the Christmas story. Luke 2: 10 But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 1: 3 But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, Matthew 2: 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed Mark 4 - parable of the sower. One person received the word with JOY, but fell away as soon as trouble or persecution arose. This was the stony ground no roots. John 14-16 that your joy may be full. No one can rob you of this joy. Hebrews 12. We talked last week about keeping our eyes on Jesus THIS SAME JESUS that will return. The full scripture is: And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So let s wrap up this discussion of joy, and top it with a shiny bow. The angels said they were bringing good news of GREAT JOY that will be for ALL people. All people that includes you! What is the good news? A savior has been born. He shall save his people from their sins. We know the rest of the story. He endured the cross FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM. He told us to ask anything in his name that our joy may be full. Consider the wise men they kept following the star. It was not easy. It was not without risk. It was costly. But they persevered. And they rejoiced with GREAT JOY! Jesus gave us a heads up in the parable of the sower Receive the Word with joy, AND let the Word take root, or you will fall away when trouble comes. How can we endure? Keep our eyes on Jesus he endured, so we can too. He wants our joy to be full. Overflowing. Uncontainable. Wrinkly eyes. In this world, he said, you will have trouble. But be of good cheer (take heart; be courageous) because I have overcome the world. We are going to end with taking Communion together. Communion: Come and receive the elements, and then I would like us to pair up. Choose one other person with whom you will share communion. 1 Corinthians 11: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord s death until he comes. 4
Until he comes! This is good news of great joy. This Same Jesus is coming again. So I would like us to express joy as we share communion tonight. I m going to give some specific instructions so let s work together here. Face the person you are paired with, and when I direct you, say to them: I take joy in remembering Jesus with you. Look them in the eyes, and choose joy. Let your face smile a full, joyous smile. And then take the bread. Let s try it: I take joy in remembering Jesus with you. (take the bread) Okay, now we are going to say Jesus is coming again. This is good news of great joy! This time, trade your communion cup, as a way of serving each other. Okay, let us say: Jesus is coming again. This is good news of great joy! Let s pray. Joyous, happy prayer. SING: Joy to the World 5