Left to Write: Joy
04-02-2007
by Brenten Gilbert

You are my joy. . . and I'm laughing so hard now
David Crowder*Band - "You Are My Joy"

Are you happy?

I find myself asking that question a lot. I ask others once in a while, but to be honest, i'm mostly asking myself. And before you start picking on me for talking to myself, i'm asking in more of a reflective sort of way than as part of a conversation.

Anyway, a lot of times, my answer is no. I'm not always happy. In fact, many times throughout the course of a day, I find myself decidely unhappy. And this used to bother me an awful lot. I used to think that happiness was part of being a Christian and that a lack of happiness meant that something was coming between God and me - usually, this is called sin.

And so it happened the other day, as I was listening to A Collision again, I came to track fifteen, "You Are My Joy." Now, in case you haven't heard much about A Collision, it's an album about death. Not entirely, but pretty much anyway. So, it's a pretty emotional journey from start to finish and some may find it odd to hear a song about joy included in such a weighty discussion.

However, this oddity can quickly be cleared up when one realizes that joy is not a synonym for happiness. (sidenote: I know, Merriam-Webster says otherwise, but what do they know?) This is a false assumption I have made for most of my life and I have my theories about why it's so easy to draw such conclusions, but that's probably best suited for a different discussion.

Joy is not happiness and happiness is not joy. Happiness is a feeling, an emotion, something that comes and goes based on the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Joy, on the other hand, is not a feeling, but rather a state of being, a mindset, a way of life. Joy is a stable and secured state of awareness, one which cannot be affected by feelings such as happiness or even grief. Christians are not guaranteed happiness (per se), but will (or at least can) have joy at all times.

The Bible says that our joy comes from the Lord. Now, when our Lord became a man and walked among us (as Jesus), He was described as a man sorrows, familiar with grief. That doesn't sound very happy, but it's not a contradiction. We assume that joy and happiness go hand in hand, but sometimes they don't.

Part of our problem is that we're greedy. Any one of us could go on a game show, win a significant amount of money and prizes and walk away upset that we didn't win the bigger prize that was available. In fact, I recently saw this occur as I passed by a new game show. A lady had just won $100,000, but before she could even finish celebrating with her friends who had joined her on stage, the game show host pointed out that, had she continued with the game, she would've won $500,000.

This is why we don't understand joy without happiness. For our greedy side, it's not enough. We want the $500,000. We want cake and ice cream. We want joy and happiness.

We miss the teachings of Jesus that talk about our treasures being in Heaven and our future being secured and sealed by the Holy Spirit. We miss the part where the Apostle Paul says that he would exuberantly throw away (perhaps more appropriately flush) all his worldly possesions in exchange for Heaven. We miss the parable of the man who sold everything for one pearl which represented the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps we hear them, but we're too busy trying to get that new car or that promotion or that other "thing" that's supposed to make us happy.

We haven't learned that happiness that stems from the acquisition of things is fleeting. And we don't understand joy enough to realize that it's never left us, even in our sorrows. Even in the most intense grief - perhaps it's in losing a relative or close friend to death - we still have joy, because we know that all creation is still in God's hands. We know that life doesn't end with death. We know, as A Collision states a few tracks later, that "We Win!"

Mistaking happiness for joy causes a lot of problems for Christians - even to the extent of a crisis of faith. It was difficult for me at times, but the more I start to understand "joy" (as in the Joy of the Lord), the more it all makes sense. I realize now that it's okay that I'm not always happy.

In light of this, "Are you happy?" becomes, "Do you have joy?" and that's a better gauge of how closely we're walking with God.

Thanks for your time.

- bdg.