Joy Soldiers: How to Have True Joy If You Hate (or Love) Election Season

[Editor’s note: This is part two of the “Fruits in Season” series, exploring the biblical “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16–24) and how Christians approach election season. You can find part one here, and the series introduction here.]

Do you remember the German invasion of America in the 1990s?

It wasn’t an invasion by army, but by a single German word. A Volkswagen advertising campaign introduced us to fahrvergnügen – a term invented by an ad agency which supposedly meant something like, “the joy of driving.” While other automakers were touting the performance statistics of their cars, VW was telling you that driving a Passat would give you a feeling of joy. Never mind the numbers, Volkswagen said, drive our cars for the feeling.

Driving for feeling is all well and good — until you hit bumper-to-bumper traffic, or get a speeding ticket, or have a wreck, or break down in a remote area. You get the idea. Sooner or later you’ll discover that driving your car — no matter how German it is — won’t give you lasting joy.

That ad campaign is long gone, but the spirit of fahrvergnügen is back with a vengeance. This time, the joy isn’t about driving, it’s about the 2024 election. This time, it’s not even in German.

Upon its launch, the Harris-Walz presidential campaign pounced immediately upon the word “joy” to describe their effort, with the vice president herself proclaiming, “We are joyful warriors.” Campaign surrogates and mainstream media alike began echoing the joyful theme, with heavyweights like President Bill Clinton saying at the DNC, “We need Kamala Harris, the president of joy, to lead us.”

Like Volkswagen, this new presidential campaign — which found itself in a short sprint to Election Day — drew the focus away from performance statistics to the feeling a Harris-Walz presidency might bring. Attributing feelings to consumer products and politicians is as American as apple pie, but no matter which campaign touts itself as a fountain of joy, sooner or later, the joy is certain to be short-lived. Joy isn’t something that you can be told simply that you have or something you can be told to have.

Joy is also the second item in the Apostle Paul’s listing of fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:16-24. And if joy is indeed a fruit, then it must be grown and cultivated. And for growth and cultivation, you need both a grower and a cultivator. In the case of joy for Christians, the grower is the Holy Spirit — only he can bring about growth. Just like the 10-year-old who wants to be taller but hasn’t yet hit his growth spurt, no amount of stretches or bar hangs can achieve actual growth. Growth will come in due time. But growth can be cultivated. After all, we water our plants and crops. We feed our growing kids.

But in an election season surrounded with manufactured joy (think: the mother who tells her complaining kid, “You will be happy, mister!”), how do Christians cultivate true joy of the Spirit?

A helpful way to think about joy is to consider it as work well done. We can all recognize the joy we experience when we complete a burdensome task that we did to the best of our abilities. Maybe it’s sitting back with a drink observing the grass you just mowed in the hot summer months, or the joy of your kid falling asleep on you as you carry her to bed after long day. But it’s not only our work in which we can take joy.

The prophet Isaiah recorded some very helpful words on this. Following prophecy of the future Messiah and the gathering of his people, Isaiah gives us a short psalm as a song of response in Isaiah 12:

[1] You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O LORD,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.

[2] “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”

[3] With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
[4] And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the LORD,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.

[5] “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
[6] Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (ESV).

For Isaiah, joy begins with thanksgiving. In the first verse, thanks is given to God for turning away his anger and instead giving comfort. The fact that God is righteously angry with us in our sin, and yet turns his anger away and offers comfort is something that can only be experienced through the work of Christ on the cross. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is cause for thankfulness we can have to God in any circumstance, even in a dodgy election season.

Joy is rooted in trust. In Isaiah 12:2 the prophet’s trust in God’s ability to save is said to drive out fear. While it is good to work toward earthly justice, we will not be ultimately saved by political prowess. Neither Trump-Vance nor Harris-Walz can be our strength and our song or keep us from fear. Only God can do this, and he offers salvation only through his son, the resurrected Jesus.

Joy is powered by God’s salvation. Isaiah sings about drawing water with joy from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). These wells do not run dry (see John 4:7-15), and those who drink from them are not only no longer thirsty, but have joy overflowing to the extent they must tell others. It’s a fuel that’s much more potent and has longer-lasting consequences than the counterfeit food a diet of constant election news will give us.

If indeed joy is work well done, it is important to recognize who is doing the work. Isaiah reveals that credit be given to the Lord, “for he has done gloriously.” Our works — whether they’re good deeds or just the daily grind, continue to go on each morning, and they never truly reach their goal. But his work is finished — and his work is perfect!

Fahrvergnügen lasts only until you turn off the ignition. A political campaign of joy — if it ever truly has any — lasts only as long as the candidate is in cycle. Work well done is our only hope for lasting joy, and that joy only finds its source in the finished work of Christ. And that’s work in which we can rest easy.