Joy as Resistance

By: Angela Williams Gorrell

Hope: more caught, than taught. Audacious. Maybe to some, foolish. Seeing what’s not here yet. A way forward, though it’s risky. A trust fall. Dedication to the pursuit of what ought to be. Fierce. Dogged. Stubborn. Hope knows there’s a path forward even if the fog of life has made it difficult to navigate. The secret sauce: hope is God-reliant.

Hope, like joy, isn’t delusional. It recognizes there is pain, sorrow, and that life is hard and for some, unimaginably hard. It’s vulnerable and powerful at the same time. Through prayer, meditation, conscious contact with and help from God, hope understands that truth, love, and justice are the real and eternal things in life.

The great theologian, Moltmann, says “Hope is the anticipation of joy.” For me, this means, hope is on its way to joy. Hope believes joy will miraculously find us, always, always, always.

I have a sticker on my laptop that my aunt Ruth sent to me, “Joy is a form of resistance.” Hope is integral to such a daring idea.

Our experience might suggest God doesn’t listen. Joy as resistance prays anyway. This kind of prayer is a resistance in itself. Similarly, we might imagine God is not ministering to us in our pain. God is absent, off doing something else in another corner of the world. Nevertheless, joy as resistance keeps the lamps trimmed and burning, on watch for God, knowing God’s persistent love will become visible again at any moment.

When it seems evil has won, joy as resistance relentlessly searches for the good. And when our mind tries to extinguish meaning, to get us to say, “What is the point?,” joy as resistance finds a friend and we determine together, there the meaning is, not in me nor in you alone, it lies in the connection between us. And then we realize that connection is also permanently between us and God, between us and nature, between us and the whole world. Others can try to sever it, but it’s unbreakable, hard as they may try. And when they do try, joy as resistance resists the urge to join them, recognizing when we dehumanize another, we also dehumanize ourselves. And we know what dehumanized people are capable of. Joy as resistance longs then to see the face of God in all people and the very desire chases healing. Healing is no small thing for a world on fire.

Joy as resistance believes deep down that fire can purify and clarify. It knows fire is capable of burning away what is dry and dead, controlling the spread of invasive pests, and miraculously stimulating growth. 

But this kind of joy is not soft. Joy as resistance shouts the truth in a post-truth world, not as a form of hurt as in “the truth hurts,” but certainly as a form of strong protest on its way to repair. It exclaims, “God’s requirement of you is barely anything and also everything: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” “So ask yourself,” it cries out, “Is this action, this policy, this word, this post, this law, this person I am celebrating, just, merciful, humble?” 

And when our eyes get tired, and they will, and the beauty of the world seems to have vanished yet again, joy as resistance sits with a child and says, “Tell me what you see.”

Bio: Rev. Dr. Angela Williams Gorrell helps people and teams at top organizations have deep, life-changing experiences. Angela is an ordained MCUSA pastor and the author of always on, The Gravity of Joy, and a brand new book Braving Difficult Decisions: What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do. She is also a consultant and speaker. You can find her at www.angelagorrell.com and on Facebook and Instagram @angelagorrell. She also hosts the More Human with Dr. Angela podcast, which is on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple podcasts.