Joy Is Defiance
July 26, 2025
Joy is not the reward for a life finally in order.
It’s the defiant practice of those who choose trust
in the middle of the mess.
Joy is under siege.
And not in a poetic sense—in a very real, measurable way.
In our current moment, joy is as rare as a handwritten letter in the mailbox, or an unhurried meal shared face-to-face without a screen in sight.
We still use the word.
We may even sing it.
But its actual practice? Vanishing.
🔥 Four Cultural Forces That Are Stealing Joy
1. Outrage
We are living in a culture of outrage. Anger has become currency—amplified by algorithms, monetized by media, and rewarded by our attention. The louder the post, the more viral the reach. A tiny fraction of voices now dominate the digital town square, shaping the mood of the many. Joy cannot grow in soil constantly stirred by fury.
Joy cannot grow in soil constantly stirred by fury.
2. Fear
We are living in a culture of fear. Fear speech now spreads farther than hate speech. The air we breathe—news, politics, headlines—is thick with unrelenting danger signals. Our brains are on alert, our bodies tense. Anxiety has become a background hum, and joy—by nature a posture of openness—is quietly exiled.
3. Isolation
We are living in a culture of isolation. Loneliness is at epidemic levels. Millions eat every meal alone. Even in crowded cities, large churches, and digital networks, people feel unseen and untouched. Without connection, joy withers. Because joy is never a solo act—it is always shared, always relational.
Joy is never a solo act—it is always shared, always relational.
4. Hurry
We are living in a culture of hurry. Time has become our master. The pace of life now makes contemplation feel irresponsible. Productivity is the new virtue. But joy requires presence. It moves slowly, at the speed of soul. And when everything is urgent, nothing has room to take root.
But joy moves slowly.
It travels at the speed of soul.
🕯 So Yes—Joy Is Under Siege
But what’s even more troubling?
The one place designed to cultivate joy—the church—is increasingly complicit.
🏛 There Are 372,000 Churches in America
That’s one church for every 900 people.1
With that kind of presence, you might expect the church to be a national teacher of joy.
A steady, trusted guide out of outrage and fear.
A place where people reconnect, slow down, and learn to live well.
But instead…
In some corners, the church has joined the outrage. It baptizes tribalism, fuels division, and equates fervor with faithfulness.
Elsewhere, it allows people to remain isolated—preaching to audiences but never forming a community.
It builds impressive platforms, offers high-production inspiration, and sends people home with spiritual adrenaline… but also with unrecognized anxiety.
And hurry? The church has bought in. It fills calendars with programs, demands volunteers for every slot, and leaves no margin for rest, quiet, or reflection. It has mistaken activity for transformation.
What has been lost?
The church has lost the ability to hold open space—the quiet, slow, sacred space where souls are formed. Where people don’t just hear sermons or sing songs, but where they become settled in God.
The church has lost the ability to hold open space—
the quiet, sacred space where souls are formed.
It no longer disciples.
It inspires.
It no longer forms.
It entertains.
It no longer anchors.
It agitates.
And joy?
Joy—meant to be the fruit of a life life formed with God—has become a fleeting emotion instead of a formative habit.
🧭 Why Did the Church Lose Its Way?
Somewhere along the way, church leaders stopped seeing themselves as spiritual shepherds and began seeing themselves as organizational architects.
They went to leadership conferences that promised results:
larger crowds, bigger buildings, stronger brands.
More is better.
Better is growth.
Growth is health.
And we believed it.
We became marketers. Fundraisers. Strategists. Program developers. We learned the tools of expansion and excellence but forgot the deeper tools of the soul. We lost the long view—the sacred role of tending to souls, forming character, deepening people in God.
We forgot: we were the ones, in every neighborhood, in every town, in all those little corner churches, who had been entrusted with one holy task—to become the kinds of women and men who could help others become attentive to the One who makes all things well.
We were the ones, in every town and every little corner church,
entrusted with one holy task—
to help others become attentive to the One who makes all things well.
Once we lost that?
All that was left was the machinery:
The activity. The adrenaline. The brand.
🕊 But Every Once in a While…
There’s a man or a woman—quietly, without announcement—who steps out of the noise.
They walk away from the outrage.
They turn down the volume of anxiety.
They resist the drift into isolation.
They stop sprinting through life as if joy is something to earn.
Some can’t go back. It would be too costly.
They’ve built platforms that demand performance.
The pace won’t let them stop. The system won’t let them slow.
But those who defiantly go a different way…what do they do?
They sit.
They sit in the silence.
They learn to attend to the Presence.
They bask in the love of God.
And in that quiet…
They remember.
This is the calling. This is why we are here.
To become the people of joy.
Not surface gladness,
Not circumstantial optimism—
But deep-rooted, soul-settled joy
that flows from being known and loved
by the God who is always near.
This is what gives me hope.
Not a movement of the masses,
but the courage of the few.
Because the ones who step away from the noise—
the ones who dare to slow down,
to sit still,
to become joy-bearers in a world at war with joy—
They will lead the quiet revolution.
And through them,
we just might find our way back
to the One who makes all things well.
💬 If this reflection stirred something in you…
I’d be honored to walk alongside you each week.
Every Wednesday, I create a spiritual formation practice to help you live more deeply and slowly in a world of noise.
👉 Become a paid subscriber here to receive the weekly tool.
📤 Or simply share this post with someone who needs joy today.
Hartford Institute for Religion Research
I’ll certainly be sharing this post. Ty 🐝