Happiness or Joy?

Happiness Depends on Happenings

            Pretend you paid cash for your favorite vehicle—a Mercedes perhaps, or a Dodge Viper or maybe you favor a Silverado.  You included every accessory you ever imagined--leather seats, the best sound system and a GPS. Hopping into your bright new car brings delightful happiness.

            As you are driving out of the dealership, an out-of-control garbage truck crushes into the left side of your car, spilling smelly trash all over your shining exterior. Suddenly you are shocked, angry and decidedly unhappy. In a nanosecond, your mood changes from elation to dejection.

            This thought experiment tells us that happiness depends on happenings. When your life glides on silky waters as smoothly as a sailboat in a soft, summer breeze, you radiate happiness. When your life resembles a busted flush, you exude unhappiness.

            Joy transcends happiness. Steady and certain, joy comes from the confident assurance that God loves us and seeks to help us act according to his good purpose. While happiness depends on happenings, joy depends on the conviction that God strengthens us in our weaknesses even though his presence remains unseen.

            Now comes the part that is hard to understand. Joy comes only with personal surrender. We can never have joy when we put ourselves first. Selfish ambition and vain conceit steal our joy. 

            A great paradox presents itself when we seek joy. Joy’s victory comes from surrendering our self-will to a higher power. The very self-centeredness that makes us need to surrender our conceit to God causes our inability to submit. If we are unable to turn our lives over to God, what can we do? We ask God for help. When we seek God’s assistance, he lends us some of his wisdom; he puts a little of his love into us.

            How does God love? I suspect he loves sacrificially. When we take time to listen, to help and to encourage others, we love like God. When give our prayers, our gifts, our presence and our service for the betterment of others we love like God. How does God think? I suppose he considers the eternal more important than the temporary. When we think like God we endure adversity without bitterness and abide prosperity without conceit. Thinking and loving like God gives us joy.