Happiness or Joy

1 Kings 4:20 NIV

The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy.

What Is The Value of Happiness?

San Francisco used to have a rather famous local celebrity who was known as “the bush man”.  It wasn’t that he was from some remote part of Africa, but rather it was how he used to torment tourists who came to Fisherman’s Warf.  He kept with him a big, leafy branch that he hid behind as someone approached him on the sidewalk.  The bush man waited until just the last second as the tourist came up to him unawares and he suddenly threw his branch aside, rose up from his haunches and screamed.  Tourists would immediately scream themselves and some would drop their bread bowls and cokes, most would just jump aside in fear.  Then everyone on the sidewalks on each side of the street who were anticipating the prank would laugh and for his effort, the bush man expected the startled tourist to give him some money for being the butt of his joke.  My pleasure in all this came afterwards as I watched the embarrassed tourist walk away.  Some would smile broadly and laugh with their companions, happy to have been made a public spectacle.  Other shuffled off clearly disgruntled, perhaps their entire day wrecked by the experience.  All the rest of us in the impromptu audience of the bush man were mostly happy…perhaps because what we saw was funny, perhaps because we were glad the bush man had not humiliated us instead.

What makes us happy?  Is it good health?  Are we made happy by winning the lottery or getting a promotion?  Do children make us happy?  Are we happy on our birthdays?  Perhaps when our favorite team wins the championship…or just a game…we are happy.  Do romantic evenings make us happy or exotic vacations?  Does your pet doing a new trick make you happy?  Has an effective medicine ever made you happy or a tax refund?  Have you found happiness going to school or to a movie or at the mall picking out shoes?   Were you happy on your wedding day, your graduation day, your last day at work before your retirement began?  Have you ever made someone else happy?  Are you happy?  Do you think you will be happy tomorrow…or next week…or next year?

Thirty times or more a form of happy or happiness is used in the Bible and it nearly always describes the reaction to some sort of external circumstance.  Leah said she was happy because she had given birth to a son. (Genesis 30: 12)  The people of Israel and Judah were happy over the prosperity they enjoyed with Solomon as their king. (1 Kings 4: 20) Haman, the assistant to the Persian king Xerxes was happy that the queen had invited him to a private banquet she was hosting. (Esther 5:9)  Yet later his happiness was usurped by fury when the Jew, Mordecai refused to bow to him.  Paul the apostle recounted the observable happiness of his friend Titus who upon his return reported how refreshing it had been to spend time with the church at Corinth. (2 Corinthians 7:13)  As sick as it may sound to us, the Psalmist indicated that anyone who bashed in the skulls of Babylonian children would be happy. (Psalm 137: 8-9)  We know it is possible for this sort of happiness because we have seen it ourselves that miserable people can find happiness by bringing misery to others.

The challenge facing happiness seekers is how to sustain happiness.  It is fleeting in most cases; usually dependent on everything breaking the right way.  Some have a personality that tends toward happiness but unfortunately not everyone is so disposed.  Many have a tough time finding happiness even in normal circumstances, let alone when times are tough.  Is there any hope for the majority of us who find it difficult being happy, especially when we can’t find a good reason for being happy?

Joy is usually considered a synonym of happiness but there is a distinct difference between the two terms, particularly in the way the Bible applies them.  Joy often is no different than happiness.  It is simply the reaction to some sort of pleasure and joy means no more than the celebration of the soul over some accomplishment, acquisition or change in circumstances.  But there is another way joy is mentioned in the Bible and how this usage differs from the normal discussion of joy is the source of it and that is what we must examine now.

Nehemiah hints at the difference in the Bible’s use of the terms joy and happiness. 

Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10 NIV)  The reason Nehemiah needed to prod the Jews in Jerusalem to celebrate was because many of them were upset over how terribly they and their descendants had acted and the extent to which they all had violated God’s law as found in the Scriptures.  Instead, Nehemiah encouraged celebration and feasting because of God’s mercy and generosity.  He then made a critical observation.  “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”  God’s joy is your strength.  Not your joy, but His joy.  Notice also that joy is not due to circumstances as we normally think of it.  The joy is found in the existence of God.

Later in the book of Nehemiah is found this statement.  And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. (Nehemiah 12:43 NIV)  The people of Jerusalem rejoiced because God had given them great joy.  The subtlety of this should not be ignored.  It was not because God had made their city safe that they rejoiced nor that their hard work had paid dividends or even that now they were prospering after all the difficulties they overcame.  The cause of rejoicing was as simple and complex as this.  God had given them great joy.

The prophet Habakkuk was a pioneer when it came to joy and how to gain it.  As he considered the coming onslaught of the Babylonian army and the leveling of Judah and Jerusalem, he made a determination.  Even if there was nothing left of the land and all forms of income were gone, he decided, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:18 NIV) Note carefully the wording.  He is not saying he will rejoice because of the Lord or due to anything God was doing for him.  He was not going to be joyful as a result of some outcome he hoped would occur.  His joy was not about the Lord; his joy was through the Lord.  The source of joy was neither his situation nor his impression of God.  Habakkuk’s joy came directly from God like a pitcher pouring its contents into a cup.

Jesus declared this very means of gaining joy, was not only realistic, it was His promise to us that we could have joy this way.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11-12 NIV)  It is so imbedded in our approach to life that we must somehow find an accomplishment, a purchase or a relationship to have joy that it seems almost absurd that we can have joy simply by being connected to Jesus Christ.  But He reiterated this later that same evening.  "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. (John 17:13-14 NIV)  This is certainly not a logical approach to happiness and joy.  We dig in our heels at this point.  If I get a new car or a boat, or if my wife stops arguing with me or if my husband would finally treat me affectionately or if my finances improved or if my test scores got better or if I have a great time on my date, I will have joy but if something turns sour, I am left bummed and frustrated. Paul completely flipped the normal joy equation around when he explained, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. (Romans 14:17-18 NIV)  Not only is joy not determined by what we do or gain, it is ours as a result of God giving it to us freely.  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)

Let me use a story Jesus told to illustrate the difference between typical happiness and the joy that is infused from God.  There were two brothers who had completely different life goals.  They shared the same father, the same upbringing and the same advantages in life.  One decided to kill the golden goose and get his inheritance early.  He spent all his father gave him and wound up impoverished and in despair.  The other brother remained a hard-working productive person who never placed any demands upon his rich father.  When the younger brother returned home a beggar, to the older brother’s shock and great displeasure, the father threw a lavish party to welcome the younger brother back into the family.  The older brother stomped around and bitterly denounced his father for his actions.  The father had never thrown him a party!  He had worked faithfully in the family business and he never got so much as a barbecue.  Looking at this story from the outside, you wonder how the older son could have been so upset.  Why did he not realize that all the father had was his too?

Here is the great issue of joy.  Just as the older son forgot that the source of his true happiness was not in what the father doled out but it was the father himself, so we too err greatly here.  We fail to see that all true joy comes from Christ through the Holy Spirit and if we would keep our eyes on Him, we would have enough joy to fill the entire world.  It is when we look away from the goodness and mercy found in God and turn to all the things we wish we had or hate we now have or might have, we lose the joy that is ours at any moment.  The typical reaction when discovering that Jesus turned the water into wine is that a big deal is made out of that act as if that were the great miracle.  That was not and still is not the miracle, but rather just the sign of the miracle.  The miracle is that Jesus Christ can and will infuse us with Himself at any moment and the water transformed into wine is the sign of what Jesus can do within us if we are ready for His joy to overflow throughout our total personality.  What sort of home might we develop if the joy of the Lord entered it, what sort of work environment could we help develop with the joy of the Lord there, how could we change the way our churches operate if we had the joy of the Lord invading them?  There is plenty of joy in Christ for us to be happy if we would simply turn to Him in prayer at any moment we feel overwhelmed or disappointed or scared or angry or frustrated and just like the water was turned into wine, Jesus Christ can turn the mood of our personality to joy.