8 The Hermit is Full of Joy
Any time you come across freedom you also come across joy – you have to go through this self-stripping process, get to know how your mind works and so on, but once you are free of self you are full of joy, because you are free of fear, it no longer runs your life; you are free of opinions, you no longer have opinions, therefore you are able to listen carefully to other people; you are free of the past, and therefore able to respond to the present, and of course in all this there is great joy.
Any time you find radical poverty you find God, because you find truth, and the proper response to finding out your own poverty is joy, thanksgiving, and love – and is sharing that with others as well. Joy is not excitement or enthusiasm, all that comes to an end, and then people are back with their sorrow once more. But joy is quiet and it gives an inner confidence, it’s a very beautiful thing, a very delicate thing, and a very vulnerable thing.
You have this new relationship with yourself when you are not governed by desire and fear. If you’ve dropped all models about the world then you can be responsive to other people, and there is a certain lightness and playfulness in your life, you are no longer oppressed by self, and there is no condemnation of others. You don’t have this need for security because you have placed your trust in God. Just look at how many of the Lord’s sayings are about this attitude of trust: ‘Do not be anxious about your life’ (Matthew 6:25). it means not storing up your ideas, as well as not storing up your grain: when they bring you before the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’ (Luke 12:11,12).