I want to be happy-- don't you?

I want to be happy--don't you?  I think it would be a truthful statement to say everyone just wants to be happy--and all the time.  For many years I've heard Christians make a distinction between happiness and joy and that made sense to me.  After all, God calls us to rejoice always, to have joy always, and we all know that no one can be happy all the time.  How can I be happy when my loved one dies, or my child is fighting cancer, or I lose my job?  Right?  Therefore, we conclude, there must be a difference between joy and happiness.

Recently, I heard Randy Alcorn make a strong case for how Biblically, and throughout history, joy and happiness have been used as synonyms.  He shared that Oswald Chambers was the first to espouse the idea that "joy" and "happiness" are different; that is,  joy is that deep, abiding contentment that remains even in the most dire circumstances of life, while "happiness" is that more temporal, emotive feeling that makes us feel so wonderful.  Alcorn says that prior to Chambers, everyone used the words interchangeably-- to be happy was to be joyful and to be joyful was to be happy.

I've been thinking a great deal about happiness as of late and I think this confusion might lie in how we view this idea of happiness.  Let's be honest.  Happiness is not something I achieve and then I'm done--never to be unhappy again.  "Ok, now I'm happy--I don't have to think about that anymore!"  That's really not how it works.  Happiness and joy, as an emotional state, is constantly being challenged--at least it is in my life.   On our trip home from Alabama for Thanksgiving, we were caught in an accident and stuck on the interstate for over an hour, and then to top it off, immediately upon getting off the interstate I got a ticket for driving through a stop sign I didn't see.  I admit it--I was not happy and my wife even reproved me for my unhappiness over such temporal, unimportant things.  I think that it might be helpful for us to see happiness as a state of heart that needs to be continually replenished.  There are many difficulties in life that want to rob us of our happiness.  Some of those difficulties come at the end of bad choices we've made.  Others are absolutely independent of anything we've done, yet both have the same result of potentially draining away our happiness.

David Murray identifies six streams of happiness that are available to all people everywhere.  He says all of us experience nature happiness, social happiness, vocational happiness, physical happiness, intellectual happiness, and humor happiness.  I think it's easy to understand what Murray is saying--good jokes, good friends, and a good back massage all make us feel happy--they add to our "happiness tank."  People recognize this and are always trying to find happiness in these six areas and more, which is why we visit the Grand Canyon and go to hear comedians.  All too many of us are too often thinking, "If I could just find the right relationship, or have this one thing, or have 'that' job or 'this' amount of money, I'd be happy."  We strive for those things because deep down we believe those things will give us lasting, enduring, happiness.   Sometimes we actually achieve the things we pursue; but invariably and unfortunately, the happiness they bring is often fleeting and we set out to refill our happiness tank, this time with something else that will prove itself equally transient.

But Murray identifies one more stream of happiness which he calls "spiritual happiness," and this happiness comes only from having a relationship with God through Jesus.  This source of happiness is always available, and it's what I believe Chambers was seeking to identify when he said that joy and happiness were different.  Here's what spiritual happiness is:  it is the joy and happiness that comes from knowing that God loves me, that my life matters and has purpose, and that God Himself is watching over my life.  What I mean by that last statement is that God in His love for me is overseeing my life so that I can trust Him that everything is going to be okay in the end.  Romans 8:28 promises that "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose."  But here's the challenge-- I have to choose that spiritual happiness and joy.  I have to decide that I'm going to walk in it, no matter what.  Just having experienced an added hour of interstate driving to an already super long drive, followed up with an immediate moving violation ticket for running a stop sign, I tell you that is no easy task!  So how do I always walk in happiness and joy? Here are two suggestions that I'm trying to practice myself.

Use your feelings of unhappiness as a warning.  If you are a Christ follower and you are unhappy, somewhere along the line you've lost sight of Jesus and that spiritual flow of happiness, and you are focused on the bad.  Remember, God says he loves you and nothing happens to you that He's unaware of or isn't supervising.  If He's allowed it, He will use it for good.  I'm not saying the thing is good--I'm saying God will use it for good.  Trust Him.

Stop, pray and choose happiness!  You can do it.  You can choose joy even in the hardest and most difficult times of your life.  You may have to choose it over and over but you can.  Pray it out loud.  Remind yourself that God loves you and you can trust Him.  "Rejoice, and again I say rejoice!"

It didn't take me but a few seconds to realize my wife was right.  I had allowed some petty things to rob me of my joy and happiness.   I'm pretty sure it won't be the last but I want to be a happy and joyful person-- all the time.  Join me in that pursuit.