“Why are you smiling?” asked a gentleman, looking at his neighbour with the suspicion normally reserved for someone carrying an unattended suitcase. “Have you seen the news?”

His neighbour nodded. “Checked your bank balance?”

Another nod.

“Then,” whispered the gentleman, “perhaps you should see a doctor. You appear to be smiling without sufficient financial justification.”

We have become so accustomed to anger, that a joyful person looks slightly defective. Someone shouting at a television is perfectly normal.

Someone forwarding twelve messages predicting disaster before breakfast is considered well informed.

But a person who greets the watchman warmly and lets another motorist pass must surely have misunderstood the national situation.

Yet Jesus says in John 15:11, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Notice whose joy He offers. His own.

That is quite different from the temporary happiness delivered by a shopping parcel.

I sometimes wonder whether we Christians have adequately informed our faces about this arrangement. We speak of heavenly riches while looking as though somebody has stolen our earthly slippers. We announce that God loves everybody, then glare at the fellow sitting in our usual church pew. Apparently, salvation is freely available, but that particular seat belongs to us.

Joy, however, need not arrive with loud laughter or a permanent grin. There are hospital corridors where it speaks softly, homes where it sits beside grief, and difficult mornings when it is simply the strength to be kind.

Sometimes joy is the quiet assurance that sorrow will not have the final word.

And in an atmosphere thick with resentment, such joy becomes noticeable. The colleague who refuses to humiliate someone.

The neighbour who listens without collecting material for gossip.

The person who disagrees without reaching for somebody’s throat, either physically or through the society WhatsApp group. People begin to wonder what keeps that person’s spirit from drying up.

“Where do you get it?” someone may eventually ask. That is a lovely opening. You can simply tell them about the One whose love sustains you, and how prayer brings you back to Him.

Think of a well in a thirsty village. Nobody needs to threaten the villagers into noticing fresh water. They see someone returning with a full bucket, drinking deeply, sharing generously, and they want to know where it came from.

Our lives can offer that invitation, provided we draw from the well ourselves instead of merely distributing directions to it.

Tomorrow morning, before opening the news and recruiting fresh reasons to be furious, spend a little time with Christ. Let His love settle your heart. Then enter the world gently, carrying something worth sharing. And if somebody asks why you look different, smile and tell them, “I’ve found a well filled with Living Water. There’s enough for you too..!”

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