God has recently been teaching me the difference between joy and happiness, and it is such a valuable lesson. So many of us are pursuing happiness; it is what we long for. We buy things we think will make us happy, or do things we think will make us happy, or pursue people we think will make us happy. And sometimes these things or people do make us happy, but the happiness is short lived; happiness is fleeting. It is subjective and always circumstantial.
When I think about the reality of happiness, I am reminded of the movie with Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happiness. That movie is one of the most depressing movies I have ever watched. The whole movie is about this man pursuing happiness. Then at the end he identifies the moment of happiness, but that is what it is, only a moment.
Not only is happiness made up of moments, but it is also very rarely pure. When I think of moments in which I was truly happy, it is always accompanied by other feelings and emotions. My college graduation night was a happy night. I had accomplished a goal, received recognition for my hard work, spent the evening with my loved ones, but it was also filled with bittersweet memories, and the reality that my life as an undergraduate student was over. My first day in my classroom was a happy day, I finally had my own classroom with my own students, but I was also reminded of everything I left behind to pursue this dream.
During a typical day, I can be happy about one student’s success and then discouraged by another’s struggles. I can be encouraged by one student’s character and disappointed by how another treated his classmate. I can be happy about the success of one lesson and then mortified by the failure of another. The days are often filled with a myriad of emotions just like these. And that is how life will always be if we let our emotions control our thoughts and actions.
Joy is different; it is not an emotion. It is a gift, a fruit of the spirit, given by God, and it is a reality that can define us no matter what our circumstances are. It is in the “joy of the Lord in which we find out strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) The joy of the Lord explains how someone fighting death can be at peace. The joy of the Lord is the explanation for how Horation Spafford can write a song entitled “It is Well With My Soul” after losing his four daughters in the shipwreck of S.S. Ville du Havre. It is only by the joy of the Lord that you could be going through something incredibly painful, but still have hope.
What is God specifically teaching me about joy? He is teaching me how to have joy in obedience, even when I don’t feel like obeying. He is teaching me to have joy in waiting for the fulfillment of His promises. He is stretching me, and teaching me how to overcome my obstacles with hope. My favorite scripture about joy is found in John 15:10-11, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” God only asks us to do hard things so that our joy may be complete and so that we can remain in His love; He is not holding out on us.
Joy is a choice. We can wake up every morning and decide to be filled with the joy of the Lord. It is not a fleeting emotion, it is a constant reality. It cannot be taken away, unless we allow someone or something to steal it. Jesus put it there, and nothing can destroy it!
I taught my students, who love to sing, a song I learned in Sunday School as a kid. It goes like this: “I’ve got joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart, spell it J-O-Y down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart. Jesus put it there and nothing can destroy, stroy, stroy, huh! I’ve got joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.”
So take the joy challenge with me. Wake up and decide that you are going be filled with the joy of the Lord. Decide that you will trust that in obeying God, your joy will be complete. And do what Paul commands the Thessalonians to do, “Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
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