Curious Christian

Holly has been blogging on Henri Nouwen’s take on ekstasis from a Christian Perspective”. She writes:

I’m reading Henri Nouwen’s book Lifesigns – Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in the Christian Perspective. In the last segment of the book, he highlights the concept of ecstasy, which comes from the Greek word “ekstasis.” – ‘ek’ meaning out, and ’stasis,’ a state of standstill. He writes “To be ecstatic literally means to be outside of a static place. Thus, those who live ecstatic lives are always moving away from rigidly fixed situations and exploring new, unmapped dimensions of reality. Joy is always new.”

Honestly, Jesus joy is so hard to embody in our lives today. We live in a culture of fear and this culture invades our thoughts and actions. I am thankful for faithful communities, like my church, who embrace a value for celebration and joy. I am so programmed into thinking about what I can do to be more joyful that I tend to miss out on the true heart of joy. Joy is not a chore or a task in the spiritual life. Joy is a gift. It’s a process of moving away from the places of fear – fear of change, failure, sin – into the place of love before God and others.

The joy that Jesus offers his disciples is his own joy, which flows from his intimate communion with the One who sent him. It is a joy that does not separate happy days from sad days, successful moments from moments of failure, experiences of honor from experiences of dishonor, passion from resurrection. This joy is a divine gift that does not leave us during times of illness, poverty, oppression, or persecution. It is present even when the world laughs or tortures, robs or maims, fights or kills. It is truly ecstatic, always moving us away from the house of fear in to the house of love, and always proclaiming that death no longer has the final say, though its noise remains loud and its devastation visible. The joy of Jesus lifts up life to be celebrated.