When Joy In All Things Feels Impossible
How Neuroscience Intersects with God’s Word to Recapture Hope and Joy
Lately in conversations with a few people in hard seasons, I’ve been struck by their “okayness.” I don’t mean they were completely okay, but I sensed something different in them than how people typically are when things are hard. Their trials, suffering, and grief was as real as it gets, even so they were carrying on without being consumed, and with joy.
This is not to say they don’t have hard days or moments of overwhelm and falling apart, they are human and we all know how suffering and trials can rule our thoughts, steal our sleep, short-circuit our self-care and control our emotions. But when it doesn’t—when we are able to still stand, function, laugh, engage—that is a grace and that is what I witnessed in these individuals. “Afflicted but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair (2 Cor. 4:8),” testaments of God’s grace and a rootedness in the gospel.
I don’t know how else one endures with hope and joy intact, but I do know even as believers this isn’t necessarily our experiential reality. Rather, in suffering it’s easy to become discouraged and lose hold of hope. But I’ve learned there is a neuroscience component to experiencing joy and hope in the midst of sorrow and suffering. And as a licensed counselor who sees all truth as God’s truth, I find it fascinating to see how it fits right in with the grace of our Creator God.
I’ll start with the science and then integrate it in with theology.
Neuroscience Take
Disclaimer: This nutshell version barely skims the surface of all there is to understand about brain circuitry and how trauma, grief, and suffering impact joy and hope. I gained valuable information from reading The Joy Reset: Six Ways Trauma Steals Happiness and How to Win It Back by MaryCatherine McDonald, PhD.
Grief, loss, fear, trauma, overwhelm and the like all get processed in the brain through the fear circuitry where the amygdala lives. This is the part of the brain that detects threat, and whether real or perceived, our body’s protective way is anxiety, hypervigilance, and “fight-flight-or freeze.” When these responses get activated though, the prefrontal cortex (the logical part of the brain) and reward pathways shutdown resulting in dysregulation and emotional flooding that may look like overwhelming waves of sadness, guilt or rage.
Furthermore, when the fear circuit is lit up it sends the hope circuit off line. (Did you know we have a hope circuit in our brain!?) But this is why it’s near impossible to feel hope when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances, taken by anxiety, fear, uncertainty and/or grief. The good new is the opposite is also true—when hope lights up, it pushes out fear and darkness.
The way to regain access to the prefrontal cortex which is key to experiencing hope, requires going to battle with your self-talk. I tell my clients all the time, “nobody talks to you more than you talk to you,” and what you say to yourself is instrumental to your well-being. Speaking truth to ourselves, as well as gratitude and focusing on others, are what cause the hope circuit to come back online, and when it does new neurochemicals decrease the fear and anxiety neurochemicals. Therefore, we can say hope grows hope, and with hope comes joy the more we intentionally tap into the prefrontal cortex.
Theological Stake
Now let’s hold this brain science up to scripture. First, more than any other command in the Bible, we are told, “do not fear (Isaiah 41:10, Deut. 31:6, Joshua 1:9).” Along with this imperative often comes the why: “Do not fear,” Why: “Because I’ve got this. I’ve got you,” is in essence what Jesus says. But we have a hard time trusting him; trusting that the “good” he has for us is really good. So what happens, our fear circuit goes into overdrive with all sorts of anxious what-ifs questions and worst-case scenario thinking that flood our brains. And with the fear circuit activated, the rejoicing that scripture also calls us to isn’t possible.
Yet here is what the Bible says:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).”
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).”
“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:4-7).”
Notice what goes hand-in-hand with joy—prayer and thanksgiving. In other words, who and what we set our minds to are vital to dismantling fear. Scripture and neuroscience align but still we need God’s help. Apart from his grace how otherwise can we break free from those ruminating thoughts that keep us bound by fear? We can’t just not fear, we need him as our HELPER to direct our self-talking thoughts toward hope.
So he is our Helper, and he is also our Hope. And there is no greater hope to set our minds upon than what the gospel proclaims:
Jesus lived the perfect life in our place and gave us his record of righteousness in exchange for our sin upon his death in our place. Acknowledging our insufficiency and need of a Savior and trusting in his faithfulness unites him to us for all eternity. In him we have security (this is what our fear-circuit part of the brain needs!). And in him, his promises now and everlasting are ours (this is what our hope-circuit part of the brain needs access to)!
In trials and suffering, I have to preach the gospel to myself. The gospel has the power to calm my mind because Jesus is my Security and my Peace. And in him I have joy.
This is how we fight through the darkness and wait patiently through trials. And get this, God created our bodies in such a way that every time we cast our cares upon him in prayer with thanksgiving, the neural pathway toward hope becomes more pronounced. Therefore, the more we think on these things and the more set the pathway of hope, the more readily able we are to keep going down that path and hold on to joy even in hard times!
Isn’t it amazing to know even our brain wiring enables hope to settle our souls? What grace! It is the way the ones I mentioned in the beginning and anyone else is able to withstand trials with the steadfastness and joy that says, “Even so, all is well with my soul.”
“In the darkness I’ll dance, in the shadows I’ll sing, The joy of the Lord is my strength (from “The Joy of the Lord is my Strength” inspired by Nehemiah 8:10.)
If you found this post helpful, I would be grateful for your share with others as I seek to encourage and equip believers in the grace of the gospel here on Substack and my @redemptive parenting Instagram.
Together Growing in Grace,
Kristen
