They call it "joy!" You should try it.

You knew it was going to be something special.

Let me say from the start that I’m not really a hockey fan. And so even though I knew it was going to be a big game, I didn’t watch much of the gold medal match at the Olympics between the US and Canada - only switching over from time to time so I could keep an eye on the score and be able to talk intelligently about the outcome on Monday. That is, until it went to overtime, at which point I put down the remote and settled in to watch what I knew was going to be a great finish.

Let me also say that I was truly rooting for the good ‘ole US to win, what with being a proud American and having heard how really well they had played for the entire tournament and remembering very well how amazing the Miracle on Ice was 30 years ago.

But I wasn’t unhappy with the outcome. Because as soon as I saw Canada score, I knew something great was going to happen, something we hardly ever see, something I wish we could see more often. I knew we were about to see a truly rare experience in human life.

I knew we were about to see joy.

Now, real joy is a extraordinary thing. The average person has occasional bouts of happiness, fits of giggles and even occasional moments of satiety. But joy, real joy, pure joy, well, you don’t see that very often. That sweet release, that complete free assurance that the world is right in its orbit and things are the best they can be, that is a exceptional thing indeed.

I understand. After all, the opposite of joy, whatever we might name it, is far more prevalent on this side of the Kingdom. We experience so much misery, sadness, suffering and sorrow that we become acclimated to it, prepared for it, even expectant of it. We stand in the midst of bliss waiting for the the rain to fall, for the other shoe to drop, for reality to come crashing down on whatever parade has come our way.

We believe in gloom, because it is what we see and experience. Joy, on the other hand, lives among us mostly as myth. Unprepared, we are disqualified in its presence.

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11

If only we believed it. If only we could, for even one moment, live by faith and not merely by sight, if we could trust the God of what will be and not the Devil of what is, then we might find one of those elusive moments and experience joy, be captivated and carried away by it, and sing, O Lord, sing. Not unlike those Canadians, who’s rafter-shaking rendition of their National Anthem raised shivers up and down my spine.

No, a hockey game is not forever. Nor is much of what can bring joy in this world, for life, such as it is, will always be waiting. But joy is forever, and sometimes we can taste it and touch it, even briefly, and be transported in Spirit to what will come. A victory, a birth, a sunny day, these are the reminders that the world is more than it seems, and so are we.

Complete the joy!