By: Devin Rose

Devin Rose — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 02:43:11 +0000

Much More Pleasant Than a Root Canal I was reluctant to begin reading Dan Lord’s book, Choosing Joy. Something about the title, I’m not sure what exactly, made me think that the book was going to be dreary. While “joy” is certainly a good thing, I couldn’t help but fear that the book would really be something more like “Choosing a Root Canal”–something I know I should do but don’t really want to.Instead, I was treated to a personable, light-hearted, yet penetrating romp through joy, the solution to our common human ailment of sin and evil.Dan and I are friends, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I first met him years ago and learned he was a fellow convert like me. But while I came into the Church from the relatively tame and lame weeds of vague agnosticism, Dan was the frontman of a rock band aptly named “Pain.” Dan told me this himself sometime after we met, and he likewise introduces his readers to his crazy life before conversion to Christ. He does seem an unlikely candidate to write a book on Christian joy, but in fact his experiences, and especially his suffering, have given him bluntly keen insight into humanity and what causes us to reject joy.Dan weaves in personal stories of his own upbringing, lives of the saints, pop culture examples, and the wisdom of the Church’s two thousand years of teachings to survey what joy is, how we can receive it, what blocks us from doing so, and what effects it has on us and the world. If angels can fly because they take themselves lightly, this book likewise adopts a light touch that lifts our spirits so that we can appreciate and experience joy.That said, I was uncomfortably surprised mid-way in to find one of my own spiritual malaises diagnosed. In chapter seven Dan answers some common objections to what he has written so far. The second one sounds like something I have been tempted to believe:”I’m just realistic about what God is. He’s all-powerful, and he’s changeless. Prayer isn’t going to change his mind. He’s going to do exactly what he wants to do exactly when he wants to do it…”I remember in particular thinking this after a tragedy where a father, trying to catch a baseball at a Texas Rangers game, fell to his death when he stretched too far, right in front of his young son.I won’t give away Dan’s answer, but it is quite good. And he nailed on the head the lack of trust in my thinking. It caused me to pray and recommit myself to trusting in God’s love and providence, knowing that what He wills is truly best, even when I cannot see how that could be so.He ends the book with a chapter on Heaven, quoting the most poignant passage from the Lord of the Rings trilogy (“a far green country…”). The epilogue describes the powerful story of how his father passed away, a living testament to joy.Overall, I recommend the book highly to anyone. It is entertaining, enjoyable to read, and informative. It is actually so good that I think it could have been given a better title, something that would have captured the essence of the book more. But, like Heaven, it is hard to describe joy, let alone summarize it in a catchy phrase. So in the end I have no better suggestion. Well done, Dan!

By: E. Roberts

E. Roberts — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 02:21:12 +0000

Choose this book! I might have passed up a book on joy. Not because I don’t need it, but rather that I have at times found myself a bit “joy-challenged”, and the idea of reading something about ‘being happy’ by a person whom I might assume is already perpetually perky isn’t high on my list of ego-boosters. I am so thankful that I didn’t miss this book, because I couldn’t have been more wrong about what I would find!Pulling from an amazing cast of many of my favorite thinkers and writers, including St. Thomas Aquinas, Dr. Peter Kreeft, Shakespeare, St. Francis de Sales, Thoreau, and a variety of Popes, Lord not only investigates what joy is, but the obstacles to finding joy, and how we can overcome them to live a truly joyful life.Offering true insight paired with friendly wit, Lord reminds us that “the fruit of joy doesn’t necessarily bloom according to easily recognizable schedules, still less when we think we’d like it to,” but with this book we are given a valuable tool to both recognize and utilize the joy that is given to us each and every day.

Comments on: Choosing Joy: The Secret of Living a Fully Christian Life

By: Devin Rose

By: E. Roberts