Joy. Three little letters. Great big word. In Marked by Joy, pastor Jared Mitzelfelt encourages Christians to rediscover this mindset of the early church. Jared just doesn’t offer platitudes or tell his readers to fake it until we make it or other things that you all too often hear in the church. Rather, Marked by Joy takes a deep look at what biblical joy is, what it does for us, what barriers we have to it, and how we can recapture it for today.
One of the things that struck me about Marked by Joy was its formatting. I know, every reader reads a book for the formatting and every writer desperately hopes a critic’s first thought is the formatting. But it’s true. Mitzelfelt has made this book readable and accessible. There are ten clearly defined chapters that flow from one to the next in a logical progression. Headings and subheadings are used well to break the text down in ways that ensure that the thought of the book doesn’t get lost in the words. From a technical perspective, this is just a really well-done book.
Of course, that means nothing if the content isn’t also good. Mitzelfelt interweaves the narrative with personal and pop culture anecdotes, creating a book that feel very conversational and relational. I also appreciated that, very early on, Mitzelfelt grounded Marked by Joy in psychology and spoke about the mental health crisis in Christian circles. There’s a contingent of Christianity that tries to downplay mental health issues or sees them as too easily solved by “just more Jesus.” While Marked by Joy is clear that joy is a supernatural thing, it also understands the very real reasons why folks might struggle to feel joyful.
That idea that true joy is a God-thing is the central premise of Marked by Joy. This isn’t another self-help book. This isn’t a book about trying harder. It’s a book about finding joy…and finding that joy is in God and God’s people. For Mitzelfelt, joy is experienced through relationships. There’s a lot to be said here about community, which is so important today’s world where we increasingly connected at a superficial level and increasingly disconnected when it comes to anything deeper.
The subtitle of Marked by Joy is Discovering the Joy that Defined the First Believers. Those believers found their joy in being part of a countercultural community that was rooted in a shared Spirit. So more than just calling us to happiness or a theology of praise or a rose-colored outlook on life, Mitzelfelt is really calling us to community. It’s a beautiful reminder, in a world filled with anger and despair, that another way of being is possible and that we can experience and live in great joy no matter our circumstances.
