We are called to share our faith joyfully, and Father Dave welcomes Shemaiah Gonzalez to discuss her new book, “Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight.”
Shemaiah explains why joy can be revolutionary. “Some people don’t know how to experience joy; I know I didn’t at the beginning,” she says. “Joy is different than happiness. Happiness is based on circumstances, and joy is about surrendering. It feels very scary to surrender, and specifically I’m surrendering my control and plans to God, and that is a scary thing. …You get butterflies in your stomach, you feel like something bad is going to happen, and it takes a while to realize that if you’re not experiencing anxiety, it’s something different. It’s joy and excitement.”
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She shares how we can find God in small moments of joy. “I think that God has a way of wanting to break through to each one of us specifically. So I talk about some weird things in my book that God showed me joy through — like my favorite pants, naps, and capybaras,” Shemaiah says. “By sharing some of those specific stories of how God’s broken through the veil in sometimes serious ways and sometimes silly ways, I’m helping other people to see specifically where God shines in their life too.”
Father Dave says, “I like how you unapologetically say that this is not a book of toxic positivity. …Some of the stories are even rooted in some childhood traumas. So when we’re talking about joy, we’re not just saying, ‘Hey, look on the bright side of life.’”
Shemaiah responds, “It’s definitely something that I’ve worked at, but I think that I was predisposed for joy just because of my baptism and being marked by the Holy Spirit. Joy is the fruit of knowing God, and how others know that we belong to God. But it’s also something that you work towards, it’s not something that just happens.”
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Shemaiah explains how we can find joy in life’s mundane moments, such as doing laundry. “Kathleen Norris writes about laundry and how it’s something that we can finish every day. There’s something beautiful in that,” Shemaiah says. “I thought about how I always wash my clothes in cold water because my mom taught me how to do that. …I also remember folding clothes with my mom and my sisters, and it’s something that we all did together.”
Another daily moment of joy can be found in sharing meals with loved ones. “It’s a foretaste of heaven,” Shemaiah says. “It’s thinking about that marriage supper of the lamb that we’re going to share with Jesus. Those little meals that we’re having together with our community that we love is just a foretaste of that.”
