Daniel J. Denk

Summary: Reflections on the source of joy and how we may rediscover it.

They had been playing hide and seek in the lower level of our home. After a time, our son came upstairs. He was alone. We asked “where’s Mr. Denk?” He answered, “he’s still hiding.”

The author of this book was at one time my supervisor in collegiate ministry. From playing hide and seek with my son to leading our team in a Blues Brothers act for national leaders in our organization, wherever Dan Denk went joyous adventure followed. It was not surprising to me to learn of his publication of this book of reflections on joy. Reading the pages, I heard his voice and recalled many joyous memories of times in his home, at a summer cottage on Lake Michigan where our regional team went on many summers and working together to invite students into the joy of following Jesus.

The book, though filled with good theology, is not a theological study on joy so much as a series of reflections on joy drawn from Denk’s life and ministry experiences and wide reading. He begins the work by noting both that we were made for joy and yet are in an increasingly joyless society. He offers this definition of his subject:

"Feelings tend to be fleeting. They are fickle. Joy, on the contrary, is a steady disposition about life, very much connected to peace and hope. We might say that joy is a hopeful and peaceful outlook on life, a deep-seated sense of well-being."

Denk contends that we do not find joy by straining to achieve it but rather that it is the by-product of something else. He reminds us of the story of C.S. Lewis and his quest for joy, his reluctant conversion, and his discovery that in the transcendent kingdom of God, he discovers the world he had longed for. He believes that discovering this joy is an urgent matter for Christians: God promises joy, it is a joy the world desperately needs, and for which the world is worrisomely losing its capacity.

In succeeding chapters Denk sets forth the invitation to joy we find both in the world and the word of Scripture. He surveys the scriptures that talk about joy, offering a more extensive definition of that joy. He focuses in on Jesus as both a joyous person and joy-giver. He explores the paradox that finding joy comes in being found, describing his own spiritual journey. One chapter speaks of recovering childlike joy and the ability to play (perhaps that explains the hide and seek game at my house!). He considers both the friends and enemies of joy–friends like sabbath, gratitude, and surprisingly, repentance; and enemies like despair and sloth, fear and worry, and legalism. He sensitively explores the challenge and opportunity suffering poses for the life of joy, considering the example of Joni Eareckson. He shows how pursuing service out of faithfulness to Christ brings great joy, as does our worship.

As he draws the book to a close, he discusses the world’s desperate need for joy amidst a crisis of meaning and the fullness of life and joy offered in the gospel to every person. He writes, “This disenchanted world we live in still longs for enchantment, something more than the meaningless life of selfish, self-reliant individuals just looking out for themselves; something more than a materialist view of the universe.” Quoting sources from Rowan Williams to C.S. Lewis, Gerard Manley Hopkins to Peter Berger, he points us to “a world charged with the grandeur of God” in the words of Hopkins. This leads to a concluding chapter on our ultimate destiny in the new heaven and earth, the fulfillment of all that we have known only in part in this life.

This is a beautifully written book, not in the sense of “precious little thoughts” about joy but of deep substance, written amid his wife’s struggle with cancer, one ending in her passing into glory shortly before publication of the book. The joy of which he writes is indeed a “steady disposition about life.” His blog, Practicing the Presence of Joy, recounts his journey of learning what it means to grieve and yet live with joy. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter of the book invite us to internalize the lessons of joy we find on the pages of this book. I found invitations to joy on every page and I believe you will as well.

________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.… (altro)