Unspeakable Joy: A Spiritual Practice

Introduction

We are all navigating leadership, work, and personal growth in challenging times. The world feels faster, more uncertain, more fragmented than ever. In this moment—when anxiety and fear are palpable—it’s easy to forget that we were made for joy.

In a recent talk, mystic Carl McColman said, “mysticism represents the joy of living our faith and living our faith joyfully.” In The New Big Book on Mysticism: An Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality, McColman explains that mysticism shares the same root that gives us the word mystery: “a sense of hiddenness, interiority, and ineffability—something that cannot be fully put into words.” He points out that the divine hiddenness is one of God’s salient features, and yet mystics insist that God is often hidden in plain sight—if only we could learn to see ordinary things in an extraordinary way, or learn to see from a new perspective.

I invite you to begin this practice with this question: What if joy is a mystery hidden in plain sight?

This practice is offered as remembrance and resistance—to name a shared intention to choose joy, especially when we cannot yet see it. I invite you to approach the practice below slowly, contemplatively, and reflectively. Use the pauses to slow your breath and let the hiddenness of joy surface in the ordinary so that you might live your faith joyfully—at work, at home, and in the world you lead.

Pause. Take a slow, intentional breath.

Unspeakable Joy: A Practice

I call myself a joyful disruptor because joy has not always come easily. In a crucible moment of my life, I purchased a bracelet inscribed with the words Choose Joy. That small act became a lifeline.

Pause. Inhale deeply. Exhale slowly.

To choose meant intentionality, agency, and empowerment. Despite my circumstances, joy could be my posture. Choosing joy was not blind optimism—it was a practice. And it was that practice that ultimately led me to discover my deeper purpose: the practice of Love.

Pause.

Joy as Communal Witness

Just as we consider the inner work of leadership, there is the inner work of joy. And while it begins in us, it is more than an individual pursuit—it ripples outward with impact.

To consider joy more deeply, I turn to the wisdom of theologian, contemplative, and mystic Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, who became an ancestor in October 2024. In Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, she reminds us:

“The inward journey transcends the private imagination to become an expanded communal testimony. Communal contemplation is richer than the immediacy of personal experience because the experience, the story, the event is subjected to the gaze of both the individual and the community.”

Pause. Breathe in, sensing the depth of communal witness. Exhale slowly.

Joy is never only personal. It is communal, ancestral, cosmic. It is how our ancestors survived, how our communities resist despair, and how we glimpse God in the ordinary.

Pause.

A Lectio Amoris on Joy Unspeakable

I invite you to read these words from Barbara Holmes as a Lectio Amoris—a love reading, not for information, but for an encounter. Move slowly. Notice which lines shimmer for you, which tug at your memory, which echo in your body.

Pause.

Joy Unspeakable
is not silent.
it moans, hums, and bends
to the rhythm of a dancing universe.
It is a fractal of transcendent hope,
a hologram of God’s heart,
a black hole of unknowing.
Pause. Breathe in. Let the words vibrate in your chest.
Joy Unspeakable
is respite from the maddening crowds,
and freedom from “church as usual.”
Pause. Exhale slowly.
Joy Unspeakable
is that moment of mystical encounter
when God tiptoes into the hush arbor
and whispers in our ears,
“Don’t forget,
I taught you how to fly.”
Pause. Let your body soften.
Joy Unspeakable
is that space/time/joy continuum thing
that dares us to play and pray
in the interstices of life.
Pause. Inhale. Exhale. Feel expansiveness.
Joy Unspeakable
is both fire and cloud,
a symphony of incongruities,
faces aglow and hearts on fire,
the wonder of surviving together.
Pause. Sit with this wonder.

Joy as Fruit

In Jesus’ farewell discourse, his final instructions to his followers when his death was imminent, he said, “In this life you will have trouble.” (John 16:33) And Jesus also instructs them in joy and love saying:
“I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.” (John 15: 11-12)

Paul also reminds us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Galatians 5:22).

Pause. Inhale. Let these words settle.

Even in difficulty, joy is available—if we cultivate it. Like fruit, joy requires seed, soil, and care. In leadership—and in life—that begins within: gratitude, presence, openness. From there, joy ripples outward: into our families, communities, and the wider world.

Pause.

In Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power, Joanna Macy writes: “When we come from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive… Yet the very act of looking at what we love and value brings with it an awareness of the vast violation underway.”

Pause. Breathe slowly. Sense the paradox.

Joy does not deny violation. Joy holds paradox: grief and wonder, despair and delight, fire and cloud.

Pause.

An Invitation to Reflect

Take three slow, deep breaths. Inhale joy. Exhale what diminishes your spirit.

Journaling prompts:

1. Holding the tension between trouble, violation, joy, and love is a paradox. What arises for you as you consider Jesus’ invitation within the context of your life?
2. Where have you seen joy shared in community—around a table, in laughter, in collective resilience—and how did it open connection or understanding?
3. How might joy be taking root in your life as a fruit of the Spirit—ripening through patience, struggle, or love?
4. What one small, embodied act can you take this week to intentionally choose joy—even when fear, anxiety, or despair would have you choose otherwise?
5. As you sit with Dr. Holmes’ words—“Joy Unspeakable… a fractal of transcendent hope, a hologram of God’s heart, a black hole of unknowing”—what resonates most deeply in you? Where do you glimpse the hiddenness of joy in the ordinary?

Let the word or phrase that arises become your prayer.

Pause. Close your eyes briefly. Feel it settle.

Closing Blessing

Audre Lorde reminds us:

“The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers… and lessens the threat of their difference.”

Pause.

As Jesus prayed, may your joy be complete in him, even as you face difficulty.
May your heart be filled with gratitude and wonder at your aliveness.
May unspeakable joy meet you in unexpected places and be a bridge that joins you with others.
May it root you in God’s heart and rise in you as courage.
May it ripple outward—transforming not only your leadership,
but the world entrusted to your care.

Pause. Inhale. Exhale slowly. Sit in the blessing.