Cody sossamon LEDGERPUBLISHER

For me to be asked to speak today, Junior must not have put any money into the entertainment budget for this luncheon.

Just remember, you get what you pay for.

When I couldn't come up with any valid excuse not to do this and accepted the invitation, I immediately began thinking about how to best discuss the Joy of Christmas.

The best way, I think, to discuss anything is to understand the subject, so I searched various sources for the meaning of the words CHRISTMAS and JOY.

I think we all know WHAT Christmas is, but I must confess that I didn't know where the term came from. The word Christmas comes from "Cristes Maesse", an early English phrase that means "Mass of Christ."

So what does "mass" mean in the compound word Christmas? The term evolved from the Anglo-Saxon word maesse, which derived in turn from the Latin missa, which is a form of the verb mittere, which means "to send."

Consequently, the root meaning of Christ-mass is "to send Christ," or "Christ is sent."

But what about JOY?

Webster defines joy as an emotion evoked by success; a state of happiness or experiencing great pleasure.

Thought of in those terms, Christmas Joy can be described as nicely wrapped presents under the decorated tree that fills your living room, families gathered together around a dinner table too small to accommodate all of the food, parties and drop-ins, watching movies, taking vacations and much more. In the case of a merchant, Christmas Joy might be record sales.

But there was something in the back of my mind that told me JOY meant more than that.

As I was doing my research, I remembered a book my preacher recommended to me several years ago. I was struggling with my own faith at the time, so Rev. Jack Heinsohn suggested I read "Surprised by Joy" by C.S. Lewis.

In that book Lewis recounts his conversion to Christianity. As he grew from child to man, he longed for the joy he experienced as a boy. By JOY he meant the deep human emotion that one feels when he has glimpse of the eternal that is only fleetingly available in earthly loves and aesthetics.

"Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with happiness and pleasure; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again," Lewis said.

Lewis writes of a childhood memory that created a sensation too strong for words to describe but says "enormous bliss" comes close. The sensation was of desire, but desire of what? Before he knew what he desired, the desire was gone and he was left with a longing for the desire which had just ceased.

He finally came to the conclusion that humans desire much and when achieved, are left with the desire unsatisfied. That longing for something that will satisfy us points beyond objects and persons who seem capable of fulfilling this desire yet eventually prove unable to do so.

It points through these objects and persons to God and his son Jesus Christ.

Joy is to be found in the Creator.

I've experienced moments of "enormous bliss" in my life — those times when I was so overcome with emotion that tears poured from my eyes. Holding my children minutes after they were born, holding hands with my wife while walking in the rain in Venice, Italy, singing carols at my church on Christmas Eve, to name a few.

These feelings, and you've all had them I'm sure, aren't centered in us, they come from God. I believe the closer we are to God, the more these feelings will come. And He wants us be close to him and experience the JOY only He has to offer.

He wants it so much for us, that he sent His Son to show us the way: "But the Angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord."

My pastor, Dan Youngblood, had this to say about Joy last Sunday: "If you’re seeking your joy in a beautiful, comfortable place, you won’t find it. If you’re seeking your joy in a better place to live or work or play, you won’t find it. For a Christian, true joy won’t be found in a place; it will only be found in a person – the person – Jesus Christ."

He is the true JOY of Christmas.

(Cody Sossamon is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger. You can contact him via e-mail at cody@gaffneyledger.com)