Joy as intense stab

Ever since I read C. S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy, I felt something in his definition of Joy (capitalized to distinguish it from the common definition) resonate with me.

Lewis describes Joy as a sudden stab of intense consciousness, very different from mere pleasure. And there is something better than joy--as much better than joy as joy is better than pleasure: Christian faith. Joy came to Lewis as often and as sharply since his conversion as before. "But I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, had never the kind of importance I once gave it. It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer."

I have felt this Joy he describes, and it did not seem situational. It contained within it hope, a kind of "longing" or desire. It was a signpost giving me strength and encouragement that I am heading down the right road. To the non-believer who experiences this, it may seem like a "longing for I know not what". And though I can say that the longing is for God and life in all its fullness, I still don't know what all that means or entails for my life here and hereafter.

Giancarlo and maybe Ryan or John from Ann Arbor read the book too, and I wonder if their experiences were similar. I also sense the presence of this Joy in Lewis's other books, especially in Narnia, the Space Trilogy, and Till We Have Faces, if you're interested in finding out more.