I (Jody) have been listening to audiobooks from Oregon’s on-line library while doing daily exercise in our apartment. Recently I somewhat randomly selected Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough by Kay Warren. I was halfway through the book before I realized Kay is married to Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, a book I really benefitted from ten or so years ago.

Warren reads her own book and is an animated and engaging reader. She’s very open about her personal weaknesses and marital challenges and offers many constructive suggestions. I appreciate her definition of joy (see below) and her emphasis that joy is a choice rather than an emotion. Happiness depends on our circumstances; joy is a choice whatever our circumstances.

Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be all right, and the determined choice to praise God in all things.

On her web page, kaywarren.com, she mentions the suicide of their son Matthew shortly after she wrote the first edition (which is the one I listened to). She says, “I really believe that God allowed me to write Choose Joy before Matthew died to prepare me for what was ahead, so that when he died, I would have the tools I desperately needed to survive and even thrive during one of my life’s most tragic losses.” (Read the entire blog here.) http://kaywarren.com/kays-blog/category/choose-joy/

I was encouraged and challenged by this book and would highly recommend it.