Joy Versus Happiness
My wife used to always send me emails where you take the year you were born and do something like subtract 5 and then double it and then add 10 and then divide it by 2 and finally subtract this from 2023 (or whatever the current year is) and you get your age. I’d get this and I’d show her that this was just an arithmetic process that should always end with your age (as long as your birthday has happened so far that year). She’d complain that I was ruining the magic or mystery of it.
Yesterday, I was talking to a friend and one of us said something about happiness and the glory of God. This reminded me of a sermon that I heard years ago where the pastor described the difference between Joy and Happiness. As I recall, Joy was the peace and contentment that comes from God’s grace through salvation, and Happiness was more of a temporary thing of getting something you want. The person I was talking to agreed and thought that happiness was striving for a prize while Joy was given to you by God. So, I’d say we were both on the same track.
Interestingly enough - and this is the magic or mystery part - the preached message that we heard right after this conversation on Faith centered on just this distinction between joy and happiness. Faith in God produces joy that nothing nor no one can diminish. The speaker mentioned that whenever he really had an objective that he finally met, he felt happiness and satisfaction. While I don’t disagree with that, I would have clarified that the happiness most have experienced after finally getting to that objective was still fleeting. After the euphoric fade, generally the question is why did I work so hard for the objective? Or I simply move onto the next objective. In other words, happiness fades.
“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.” - Ecclesiastes 5:18-19
When I think of Joy (outside of God), I tend to think of my relationship with my wife or others in my life that I feel especially close to. For example, we have a different ideological perspective on certain things as a family member and his wife have. When the subject of abortion came up, she asked me if I would disown them if she, at some future point, were to do something that I disagreed with, like having one. My honest answer was (and is) that I love her and nothing nor no one could ever change that. However, that didn’t mean that I would be able to condone or support every decision she may make (along the lines of love the sinner, hate the sin concept).
“For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” - Ecclesiastes 5:20 ESV
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” - Galatians 5:22-23 ESV
A large part of me wonders whether God was trying to tell me (or prepare me for) something by having a personal conversation with someone about the difference between happiness and joy and then immediately hearing a message on the same thing. My only response is “Here I am Lord!”
