14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
The most primary lesson we all have to come to terms with is life's inherent unfairness. This is a lesson we begin to learn very early on when we complain to our Kindergarten teacher that it's not fair that Danny had two turns in the sandbox and we only had one. "Life's not fair," she says. That is true, and painfully so once we consider what a little punk Danny really is. He never would have had two turns if he had not knocked down Susie while running to the front of the line in the first place.
The longer we fight off the acceptance of the truth of life's basic unfairness then the more we will be full of disappointment, anger, and rage at injustice. In the end it will eat us up. I am convinced this is the source of much of the hostility and aggression we see on the streets and in the politics of our country today. This is the reason the raisin explodes.
But it is not enough simply to intellectually accept the fact of life's unfairness. In order to deal with that fact, a person must also develop a sense of joy. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is contingent on "happenstance" -- what happens. When Danny gets a second turn it doesn't make me very happy. Joy is something else; joy is what I have within me -- the capacity be thankful and know that I am still blessed -- no matter what happens. Joy in Greek is "kara" -- the root from whence the word character comes from and the meaning of which is "grace" or "beloved". The person of joy is the person of character who knows they are beloved and graced even if life isn't very fair.
On the last night of his life Jesus commended to the disciples joy. "No one can take your joy away from you," he said. Not Judas, not Pontius Pilate, and certainly not Danny.
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