Flourishing: Choose Joy This Advent

In this Advent season, we turn our hearts toward Mary of Nazareth, the young woman who chose joy in the face of impossibility. She was poor, marginalized, and misunderstood, yet she said yes to God’s call. Her “yes” was not born of comfort but of courage. Mary reminds us that joy is not a mood; it is a movement.

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We see that same spirit in our own story. During the long night of slavery, when the whip cracked, and freedom was only a rumor, our ancestors still sang. In hush arbors and fields, they whispered “Steal Away to Jesus.” They dared to rejoice when there was no reason to rejoice. That was not foolishness — it was faith. Like Mary, they believed that even in the darkness, God was birthing something new. To choose joy, then, is to stand in that same lineage of holy defiance. It is believed that even now, amid economic hardship, political confusion, and social unrest, God is still making a way out of no way.

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Here are seven ways to practice joy this Advent — seven disciplines that keep us human and hopeful in the waiting:

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1. Rest Without Guilt - Rest is not laziness; it is liberation. Take sacred pauses. Turn off the noise. Sit still and breathe. When you rest, you declare that your work does not measure your worth. Rest says, “My body belongs to God, not to empire.”

2. Remember the Good - Joy begins with gratitude. Each day, name one thing that still brings you life — a sunrise, a song, a child’s laughter, a meal shared. Gratitude does not erase pain, but it teaches the heart to see beyond it.

3. Rejoice in Community - Mary ran to Elizabeth, and together they shouted for joy. Find your Elizabeth. Gather with those who remind you of who you are. Call that old friend, share a meal, sing together. Joy is too heavy to carry alone.

4. Resist Scarcity Thinking - Empire teaches there is never enough — not enough money, time, or love. But faith whispers, “There is always enough in God.” Give what you can. Share what you have. Generosity is a joy strategy that breaks the grip of fear.

5. Reimagine the Future - Afrofuturist theologian Melva Sampson reminds us that joy is an act of imagination. Picture a world where our children thrive, where our elders rest without worry, and where Black families flourish without apology. Advent invites us to dream forward — to practice tomorrow’s joy today.

6. Reclaim Celebration - Joy is a protest. Celebrate your survival. Mark your milestones. Dance even when the world is trembling. As Dr. Gina Stewart often says, “Joy is not the absence of pain but the refusal to let pain have the last word.”

7. Renew Your Commitment to Justice - Eddie Glaude reminds us that democracy dies when joy disappears. Let your joy move you to do justice. Feed the hungry, teach the children, organize your neighbors, vote with conviction, love without condition. Joy that serves is joy that saves.

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Our ancestors knew it. Mary knew it. Joy is both testimony and tool. To choose joy this Advent is to join a holy rebellion — to stand with Mary, Harriet, Fannie Lou, and every weary soul who dared to believe that something sacred could still be born in them and through them. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” — Luke 1:46–47