Joy, Church, and the Neglected Face of God - An 11-Day PlanChikamu

Losing Our Bodies

Another reason joy is disregarded is that we often neglect bodily sensations in our modern Christian practice. This happens not only with the word joy; it represents a general trend. Words that are strongly connected to sensations in our bodies are translated in ways that are more cerebral and conceptual. For example, when Jesus is walking down the road and hears two blind men crying out to him for healing, we read that He “had compassion on them” (Matt. 20:34). The word compassion comes from a Greek verb that means “to be moved in one’s intestines or guts.” Jesus saw these blind men pleading for help, and His stomach ached with compassion. Compassion is felt in our bodies just like joy. The disconnection of our bodies from our experience of God is a direct consequence of half-brained Christianity.

The right hemisphere is where the internal and spatial sensations of our body are brought together and coordinated, giving us what one researcher calls “an integrated sense of the body.”2 Our right brain governs our emotions and awareness of our bodies. In times of distress, low joy, or general left-brained dominant living, this integration dims or breaks down. We will often feel “outside our bodies” or “in our minds.” In left-brained Christianity, we tend to lose our sense of feeling God’s presence in our body. The right brain governs this ability, so as we gravitate toward a full-brained discipleship, we grow to experience God in our bodies. We believe that God designed our bodies to feel and enjoy Him. 

Experiencing God in my body was a foreign concept to me when I first encountered this teaching. I remember asking Jim, “What am I supposed to feel?” He responded that different people feel God’s joy in different ways. What is important is that we are aware of something. Butterflies on our skin. Electricity going up the back of our neck. A tightness in our gut. A sense of warmth or lightness. Feeling joy in our bodies indicates that our right brain is functioning smoothly. When we lose this bodily connection, it is a sign that our brain is not running well.

When my children were infants, we would put them to sleep early in the evening. Later, before going to bed, I would tiptoe in to look at them as they slept. In the darkness of their room, my face would beam the light of joy as I watched them sleep. I could hardly contain my pleasure as I drank in how precious they were to me. If I imagine my heavenly Father doing that to me, I can feel joy in my stomach. I can feel my body react to my Father’s face. The physical human body was designed to respond to joy.

Joy illustrates the importance of our bodies while walking with Jesus. We are meant to sense the emotional signals of life in our flesh and bones. God designed us to feel His presence, but in my experience this aspect of discipleship was missing. When was the last time your church offered a class on “feeling God in your body”? It might even sound creepy to our modern ears. Joy is a visceral response to our relationship with God. Remember the response when pregnant Mary visited her cousin: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41). Our whole bodies respond as we encounter the living God. 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. When you encounter someone during your day who is obviously very happy to see you, what does that feel like in your body?

2. Have you felt a similar reaction in your body when God felt close to you?