Joyful people used to make me very skeptical. Toxic positivity had been common in the ministry spaces I occupied as a teenager and college students. I had equated joy with never permitting sadness or negativity, never acknowledging pain or struggle, and projecting a friendly face with a venomous bite. My heart was initially softened to joy by watching two joyful people (whom I had initially dismissed as “obviously fake”) walk through a series of difficult circumstances, name them as trying,... Read more