This week, we have all lived through ‘Blue Monday’ -a day which falls typically on the third Monday in January, and which is said to be the most depressing day of the year. In 2026, the weather certainly hasn’t helped! After all the rain, my garden is so full of mud that if you ever can’t find me, that’s where I’ll be stuck…
I was reading a post from another diocese which stated that they had reclaimed this dour post-Christmas season as ‘Joyuary’: a time to consciously celebrate the joy we have in Christ and to share that with a needy world. I think we can celebrate the intention to be joyful, while acknowledging that life doesn’t always make that easy. We can’t manufacture a sense of joy at those times when everyday life seems to drain us and we seem to barely be keeping our heads above water. Feeling guilty at not being ‘joyful’ doesn’t help (I’ve certainly heard countless sermons about nobody liking a miserable Christian!).
But maybe, rather than feeling that we’re failing at joy or forcing it, it might help to define what the Bible tells us Christian joy actually is. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), it comes from God, not from what’s going on around us (in John 15:11 Jesus says “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full”). We find it in God’s presence, when we live our lives in relationship with him (Psalm 16:11 ‘In your presence there is fulness of joy’). We find it when we praise him (Psalm 71:23 ‘My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you’), and when we remember his promises and what he has already done for us (Psalm 119:111 ‘Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart’).
The key here is that joy is a wholly different thing from happiness. Happiness, good as it feels, is often circumstantial, fleeting and self-focussed. It tends to rely on good fortune. Joy, on the other hand, is a much deeper thing. It’s steady, part of who we are, and anchored in God’s unchanging nature and promises. It leads to enduring hope. That is why joy is a consistent theme throughout the Bible.
So, as we gamely stagger on through the last few days of this dark and rainy month, let’s reframe our vision of what being a joyful Christian looks like by focussing on the hope and faithfulness of our God who does not change, whatever the weather, whatever our circumstances. Maybe then we won’t be able to help authentic joy from bubbling up inside us and spreading beyond to the world.