By David Hegg
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a circle of friends when one asked us, “What brings you joy, not happiness, but joy?”
As is often the case, that started me thinking along ethical lines. What is the difference? Don’t we often consider joy and happiness to be synonyms and use them interchangeably in everyday conversations? So, could they be different in significant ways?
The answer, as confirmed by the responses of the group, revealed what we already understood deep in the core of our being. Joy and happiness, while perhaps having similar short-term effects on our well-being, are significantly different.
Happiness is best understood as an emotional feeling brought on by external circumstances. It is a spontaneous reaction, while joy is the fruit of a heart and mind filled with a conviction that life is a blessed privilege, regardless of the situation. Given that happiness is a personal emotional response, it is often short-lived unless sustained by ongoing, happiness-laced circumstances.
Consider a day at the beach. If the sun is out and the water is warm, we’re happy. We’re enjoying the circumstances we desired as we left home. But if the clouds roll in and the wind picks up, sadness tells us we chose the wrong day, so we head back home. In the end, our emotional ups and downs are merely responses to weather conditions. The circumstances that brought happiness evaporated quickly, taking our light-heartedness with them.
In contrast, joy is a state of mind rooted in the core of our being, whose pillars are firmly grounded in fundamental convictions that transcend the ebb and flow of circumstances. In this sense, joy is not dependent on emotional feelings but on ethical foundations. Joy is the product of an ideology, a worldview based on settled truths and the convictions they produce. Such a life philosophy, if strongly constructed and exemplified in daily living, leaves you impervious to the consequential changes of circumstance.
Again, consider the example of a 70-year-old male whose father died of Alzheimer’s and whose older brother is already in the throes of that horrible disease. For him, there will still be happy times, but those emotional responses to circumstance will never fully displace the fear that Alzheimer’s may be just around the bend.
Yet, while it may seem odd, even unbelievable, this man lives with joy. How? Because, deep down in his heart, his view of existence is grounded on a steadfast belief in a transcendent God who inhabits eternity and has made provision for him to share eternal life, regardless of how his mortal life comes to an end. Further, he rests each day in the refuge of God’s abundant love in which he has found redemption and forgiveness. Further, he rests comfortably in God’s promise that he is working through every situation for the man’s good. With a life built on a source of joy that circumstances cannot alter, he can see adversity in all its forms as an opportunity to live in a way that exemplifies his beliefs while fending off the despair that could be brought on by the circumstances that surround him.
Those who go around seeking happiness in the circumstances, opportunities, thrills and excitement this world offers will find themselves addicted to external means. More excitement, more stimulants, more new experiences, always more will be needed to stoke the happiness fire inside their mind. Yet, their frenzied lives will never find the rest and peace that only true joy can produce.
If we take a good look around us, we’ll see immediately that external stimulus can never create internal contentment. Real contentment in this life is only found and maintained through a righteous personal worldview built on the pillars of truth and faith. Those who speak lies in their hearts and convince themselves that evil is good, that wrong is right, and living without ethical restraints is the height of true freedom are also those around us, living in the quiet of deep despair.
So, what’s the answer? Become a person of joy rather than a seeker of happiness. Fill your heart with the soil of truth and plant the seeds of faith and virtue. You’ll find the flowers of joy will spring up and bloom as God’s sun comes out, even on those cloudy days at the beach of life.
Local resident David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church. “Ethically Speaking” appears Sundays.
