The ABC’s of Joy

Max Lucado

6 min read ⭑

According to a study from sociologists at Harvard University, joy is contagious, spreading among friends, neighbors and colleagues like the flu. The study of more than 4,700 people who were followed over twenty years found that people who are happy, or become happy, boost the chances that someone they know will be happy.” Joy has a ripple effect. The pursuit of happiness is more than a line in the Declaration of Independence. It is a necessary step in enhancing the happiness of others.

Is it time for you to bump up your joy level? What if the only thing separating you from unquenchable happiness is a change of mindset?

Nathana Rebouças; Unsplash

Assess Your Joy Level

Don’t go slack in the discipline of guarding your mind. Be quick to interrupt any notion that seeks to sink your soul. The prophet Jeremiah modeled the vigilance we need. He was nicknamed the “Weeping Prophet” because he was exactly that — a weeping prophet. His Jerusalem was under attack. His beloved nation had turned from God. “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is” (Lam. 3:17 ESV).

But then he remembered the answer for his despair: “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (vv. 21–23 ESV).

Take note of the phrase, “This I call to mind…” Jeremiah made a conscious decision to manage his thoughts. He deserves a Picky Thinker medal. He then testified: “I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’” (v. 24, NLT).

Another translation words it this way, “I choose to remember God, and this is my hope” (v. 24, easy)

This is Thought Extraction 101! We choose what we remember. So, let’s remember our call to joy.

Here is a practical step: Stay in the present moment. Harvard researchers developed an app that analyzes people’s minute-by-minute thoughts, feelings and attitudes. They discovered that unhappy people focus on what is not happening. Happy people focus on what is happening. Wasn’t this the point Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mount?

Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. (Matt. 6:25–27)

Don’t settle for a joyless life! If you have one, move quickly to step “B.”

Believe That Joy Is Possible

In December 1914, the Edison laboratory of West Orange, New Jersey, caught fire. Overnight, much of Thomas Edison’s life’s work was destroyed. Research documents were incinerated. Two million dollars’ worth of equipment went up in flames.

Charles Edison, the inventor’s son, saw the fire and ran frantically toward the structure, hoping his father was safe. He found him watching from a distance, his white hair blown back by the winter wind. The senior Edison asked the younger, “Where’s your mother? Find her. Bring her here. She’ll never see anything like this again as long as she lives.”

The next morning, walking about in the embers, the sixty-seven-year-old scientist told his son, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”

Edison refused to relinquish his joy.

It would be folly to think life can be lived with no setbacks. But it would be equal folly to assume those setbacks can steal our joy. Problems have no more power over us than we allow them to have. Remember, joy is more than a good mood. It is a deep-seated confidence in God’s presence, power and promises. Joy might feel elusive, and finding it might take time — a long time. But it always remains an option.

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“Don’t assume the worst. Assume, instead, that God is up to something good. You are just an answered prayer away from a fresh start.”

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Edison could have succumbed to a destructive mental thought loop — This disaster is fatal, I’ll never recover, I might as well quit, retire, run away, escape to a remote island. To their credit, they did not. The choice demanded deep resolve on their part, but they avoided the downward spiral into the pit at least in part because they were picky thinkers.

You can do the same. It just takes a tablespoon of faith.

Some of the saddest words in Scripture are recorded in Mark 6:5. “[Jesus] was unable to do any miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them” (ceb).

Rarely do we read the name of Jesus and the word unable in the same sentence. But we do here. Why was Jesus unable to do the works? The answer is found in the next passage: “He was appalled by their disbelief” (v. 6, ceb).

Where there is no faith, there is no request. And where there are no requests, there is no power. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). What a tragic loss! God was in their midst, and they did not seek him.

Let’s not make the same mistake. Jesus has power. We can ask for help. He will help us! So come in faith. What Jesus said to his followers, he says to you. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).

Why don’t you call out to him? That is the C in the ABCs of joy.

Call Out for Help

My dad was quite handy, so handy that he built each house we lived in, except for the final one. On one occasion, in an event that has made its way into Lucado family lore, the house fell down. He’d spent weeks constructing a small wood-frame structure in a West Texas town called McCamey. (McCamey, as you know, is located not far from towns like Ira An, Wink, and No Trees.) Dad and mom worked hard all one weekend and succeeded in standing up the frame. That Sunday night a windstorm whipped through the region. When dad went to check on their work the next morning, the house had collapsed.

He stood there for the longest time, hands on hips, staring at the pile of lumber. He had no choice but to go to his oil field job for the day. He mentioned the mishap to a few coworkers. Later that day he returned to the construction site, ready to dismantle the fallen frame and start over. You can imagine his surprise when he found more than thirty friends and neighbors already at work. They had not only restored the frame, but they were also pressing forward with construction.

They ended the day three weeks ahead of where my parents would have been had there been no storm.

Imagine the difference between the way my father felt that morning and the way he felt that evening. At first glance, the storm brought a burden. But in the end, it brought a blessing.

Who is to say the same won’t happen to you?

Maybe you feel like your world has collapsed. That all your hard work will need to be redone. That it’s just you against the world. Can I challenge you to think otherwise — to tame your thoughts? Don’t assume the worst. Assume, instead, that God is up to something good. You are just an answered prayer away from a fresh start.

Call out for help. Ask God to replace your contingent joy with courageous joy. Ask him to help you anchor to the firm rock on his shoreline. Ask him to show you the joy that cannot be taken. He will. He will stir a revival of contagious joy in your heart.

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With more than 150 million books in print, Max Lucado has been dubbed “America’s Pastor” by Christianity Today, “The Best Preacher in America” by Reader’s Digest, and the “Ted Lasso of Pastors” by the Dallas Morning News. His latest book is Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life. His books have been published in 56 languages worldwide and regularly appear on bestseller lists, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly and USA Today. He has been pastoring in San Antonio at Oak Hills Church since 1988.

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Adapted from “Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life” by Max Lucado. Copyright © 2025. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson.

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