Joy is not a sin
There is no denying that there is sorrow in the world and there is no denying that we all have felt extreme sorrow in our time. However, we can still experience joy after sorrow. Joy is not an insult to loss and it does not mean that the struggles of today are not important. But making more out of them and inflicting misery upon ourselves does not diminish or reinforce the righteousness of our sorrows. Most of us feel that if we feel some sort of joy in the midst of sorrow we are somehow allowing the “other side” to score some imagined points. The other side, the side which we believe inflicts sorrow upon the world, is not an entity. It is a happening and it can not score points because you experience joy.Joy is not a sin and neither is moving beyond sorrow. We hold onto sorrow because somehow we wish to feel bad about the situation and we feel it somehow makes us more real and more human. After all, if you show up at a funeral with a great deal of joy people might question your sanity. But you have every right to show up at a funeral filled with joy. Being filled with joy in no way means that you do not care or that you do not feel for the sorrow. It simply means that you are able to put your joy ahead of your sorrow and still enjoy life. Life is hard enough without forcing ourselves to feel any unnecessary sorrow. Joy feels better to embrace and many people eventually opt for the joy, without apology.
