Joy and Stage 4 Faith

I've had three different conversations in the last week or two in which my conversation partner and I have concluded that our most powerful spiritual choice would be to have a joyful day each day as a top priority, that this trumps whatever other wise spiritual strategy we might choose, for all their virtues.

There's an old Steve Martin joke I often employ.  He plays a huckster who shouts out, "YOU can be a MILLIONAIRE and never pay taxes!  HOW, you ask?  Two simple steps.  First..." (At this point he drops his voice and speaks fast.)  "...get a million dollars.  THEN..."  And then he continues the joke.

That "first, get a million dollars" line often seems like my life.  The thing I most need is, in fact, the un-gettable thing.  So saying to folks who fight discouragement or depression that perhaps our mutual top daily priority should be to be joyful is the ultimate "sure, but HOW?"  And yet it's had a strange resonance nonetheless.  If we're joyful, perhaps that alleviates a little pressure to navigate our lives or jobs or ministries perfectly.  Perhaps the joy itself will give us some breathing room, since it will help us feel like God can navigate his way through a number of choices we might make, whether ideal or not.  For those of us who work in or lead teams, joy helps there too, giving our team members a sense of safety and encouragement around us.  And then there's the upside that, whatever else happened during the day, we felt JOYFUL.  How bad could that be?

So... yes, but how?  Here's the suggestion a number of us have been trying.  We ask God first thing for a joyful day.  Would he be so gracious as to give us that?  We might throw up a refresher prayer mid-day.  And then at night we'll ask God how, from his perspective, we did.  My experience is that that last prayer is the key.  God often reinterprets my day in a way that's really satisfying and proves to be a big help in my next day.  So he might say, "Dave, you had a terrific, joyful day."  And I'll reply, "....Greeaaat...  Umm, how so?"  And he'll say, "Oh my goodness, you were so in the moment with me throughout the day.  So many encouraging things happened.  (Which he'll then list.)  My goodness, what an awesome day, and so full of joy."  And then I'll feel encouraged and go to sleep, and when I wake up the next morning and ask for a joyful day, I'll have 20% more faith for it than I had the day before, which will be reinforced when I check in with God at the end of the day.  (I find he's very motivated to encourage me each night that I, in fact, had a terrifically joyful day.)

So... I'll submit that to you.  So many of my friends are coming to realize that this may be a bottom line for them, the single most important thing to pray for daily for themselves, the thing that will help the most other people by way of them.  What do you think?