C.S. Lewis on Joy

Description

Have you ever reached a point where you felt completely emptied of joy?

I have. In fact, I have been in that situation multiple times. Perhaps you have as well. After all, there are many circumstances in life that can make us feel this way: grief over the loss of a loved one, failures in our endeavors, clinical depression, or simply the constant background anxiety of living in a world under sin’s curse. There are a billion things that can steal our joy, but only one source from which we can receive it.

Back in 2018, I was suffering through a time of intense mental depression and anxiety set off by my physical experience of chronic pain and fatigue. The longer I was trapped in that condition, the more overtly spiritual it became, so that I felt as if the devil himself was upon my back. Modern people tend to call this a crisis of faith. Martin Luther called it an Anfechtung: a spiritual trial or testing.