JOY! JOY! JOY!

JOY . . . People want it.

People want to be around others who have it.

People want to know how to get it.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “we work with you for your joy . . .” 2 Cor. 1.24

What is joy, really? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Is there really such a thing? And, what’s the difference between joy and happiness? It is more common to talk about happiness, and the pursuit of it, than the pursuit of joy. But, somehow JOY does seem to trump happiness …

Let’s talk about what we know of joy—

It’s not about personality or temperament. I’ve heard folks say, ‘Oh, it’s easy for you to be joyful—it’s just your personality. You’re bubbly, and besides, you’ve got a great life!’ Joy is not about personality. Joy must be experienced in the moment; you can’t save it up, it is not for tomorrow or next week. The psalmist said, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.”1 Joy is not dependent on circumstances, whereas happiness tends to depend more on external goings-on; circumstances are always changing, so
happiness has the potential to elude us, sorta like the bubble that we
finally reach up to grab, only to find it popping in our hand. Joy seems to be inextricably tied to hope. Hope keeps joy alive; it feeds it.

One current-day rabbi said, ‘happiness as defined by our culture has become just a synonym for pleasure . . .’ ah, sadly, that does seem true, doesn’t it?

Happiness, at some point—sooner or later, is fleeting, while joy is lasting. I like what the ol’ preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said on the difference between joy and happiness “That word joyful is a very sweet and clear one. Happiness is a very dainty word, but yet it is somewhat insecure because it begins with a ‘hap,’ and seems to depend on a chance which may happen to the soul. We say ‘happy-go-lucky’, and that is very much the world’s happiness. It is a kind of thing that may hap and may not hap. But there is no hap in joy. When we are joyful or full of joy, and that of the best kind, we are favored indeed. No man takes this joy from us . . . it is a celestial fruit, and earth cannot produce its like. (It is helpful to know that happiness is derived from the Latin word, ‘hap’. Hap means hap-hazard . . . hmmm . . .)

Joy is linked with the heart of God—yea, it comes from the heart of God, because at the heart of God are all things good. For some, that is hard to swallow because maybe the religious or judgmental Christians have painted God as austere, far-off, possibly vindictive,
or as a cosmic killjoy—when he is none of those.

When I was 12 years old, I played the organ at the evening service of a neighborhood church. One of my favorite hymns had the chorus, ‘it is joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the half has never yet been told.’ The melody was pretty, and the words sung of a joy that is unequalled and can’t really even be described—that kind of joy comes only from knowing
the Lord.

Part of the joy of the Lord is how he feels about you, his beloved creature. The Father is ravished by you. You make him smile. You make him laugh. You make him leap for joy. You make his heart beat faster. The Bible even says, you make him sing for joy.2 Whether or not you understand that does not stop God from feeling about you as he does. He loves your smile. The blemishes, wrinkles, and extra pounds you have may bother you, but he looks right past them. He loves you—just as you are. He loves you when you are awake, vibrant, and full of life, and he loves you when you’re down, tired, and feeling lethargic. The truth is, God really likes you; in fact, he enjoys you. Thanks to the gracious act of his Son, he also sees you perfectly redeemed—when you accept his gift of salvation.

The great philosopher Blaise Pascal made this observation: “There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his
surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in
things present. But these are all inadequate, because the
infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object,
that is to say only by God himself.” There is no true happiness, there is no lasting joy without God’s presence in our lives. Through walking with him in obedience, our joy will be made complete.

Christine