Don't give up on this...JOY!
- Christine DiGiacomo
- 12 minutes ago
- 5 min read
JOY . . .
People want it.
People want to know how to get it.
People want to be around those who have it.
What is joy, really? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Is there really such a thing? And, what’s the difference between joy and happiness? It is more common to talk about happiness, and the pursuit of it, than the pursuit of joy. But, somehow JOY does seem to trump happiness …
Early this morning, I tried to go back and see when I first started writing about joy; with a cursory look, I found thoughts from 2010, but I know I wrote much earlier about this quality we would all like to have. Of course, we talk about joy now because the angels announced that with the Savior's birth, there was joy for all people, everywhere. But the Old Testament Scriptures also talked about joy. Why, it was Nehemiah who said 'the joy of the Lord is my strength'! What a statement.
JOY! is not about personality or temperament.
People have looked at me and said, ‘Oh, it’s easy for you to be joyful—it’s just your personality. You’re bubbly, and besides, you’ve got a great life!’ Joy is not about personality. Joy must be experienced in the moment; you can’t save it up, it is not for tomorrow or next week. The psalmist said, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.”1
Joy is not dependent on circumstances, whereas happiness tends to depend more on external goings-on; circumstances are always changing, so happiness has the potential to elude us, sorta like the bubble that we finally reach up to grab, only to find it popping in our hand. Joy seems to be inextricably tied to hope. Hope keeps joy alive; it feeds it.
One current-day rabbi said, ‘happiness as defined by our culture has become just a synonym for pleasure . . .’ ah, sadly, that does seem true, doesn’t it?
Happiness, at some point—sooner or later, is fleeting, while joy is lasting.
For more than a decade, I have been quite taken by what the ol’ preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said on the difference between joy and happiness:
“That word joyful is a very sweet and clear one.
Happiness is a very dainty word,
but yet it is somewhat insecure because it begins with a ‘hap,’
and seems to depend on a chance which may happen to the soul.
We say ‘happy-go-lucky’, and that is very much the world’s happiness.
It is a kind of thing that may hap and may not hap.
But there is no hap in joy.
When we are joyful or full of joy, and that of the best kind,
we are favored indeed.
No man takes this joy from us . . . it is a celestial fruit,
and earth cannot produce its like.
*It is helpful to know that happiness is derived from the Latin word, ‘hap’. Hap as in hap-hazard . . . aha.
Joy is linked with the heart of God because it comes from the heart of God.
At the heart of God are all things good. For some, that is hard to swallow because they think of God as austere, far-off, possibly vindictive, or as a cosmic killjoy—God is none of those.
When I was 12 years old, I played the organ at the evening service of a neighborhood Pentecostal church. One of my favorite hymns had the chorus, ‘It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the half has never yet been told.’ While the melody was pretty, the words described a joy that is unequalled and in many ways, defies description—that kind of joy comes only from the gospel, the daily life-giving power of knowing and walking with God.
Part of the joy of the Lord is how he feels about you, his beloved creature. The Father is ravished by you. You make him smile. You make him laugh. You make him leap for joy. You make his heart beat faster. The Bible even says, you make him sing for joy.2 [just a little segue here: do you think God sings tenor or bass? And something I have never thought of until right this very minute, do you think God ever sings with the choirs of angels?]
Whether or not you understand God's magnanimous love for you, that does not hinder God from feeling about you as he does. He loves your smile. The blemishes, wrinkles, scars, and extra pounds you have may bother you, but he looks right past them. He loves you—just as you are. He loves you when you are awake, vibrant, and full of life, and he loves you when you’re down, tired, and feeling lethargic. The truth is, God really likes you; in fact, he enjoys you. [right here Joyce Meyer would say 'I'm preaching goooood!' hahaha]
Thanks to the gracious act of his Son, when you choose to accept the gospel message, embrace the way of Jesus, the Father also sees you perfectly redeemed. Consider these words Jesus spoke to his disciples,
as they shared what we call the Last Supper together:
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you,
that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.3
The great philosopher Blaise Pascal made this observation: “There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say only by God himself.” There is no true happiness, there is no lasting joy without God’s presence in our lives.
If you are feeling challenged in this area - that is, struggling with the notion of living with joy, perhaps you could ask God to show you what has gotten in the way. After all, as followers of Jesus, when we walk closely with Him, the Holy Spirit within produces good things in us--that which Paul called 'fruit', nine different things, including JOY! Joy to you, Friends!
What a pleasure is this song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUDUd9RBcJw&list=RDvUDUd9RBcJw&start_radio=1
Lewis was right - Joy is the serious business of Heaven!4
Christine
Advent, 2025
1 Psalm 118.24
2 Zephaniah 3.17
3 John 15.10-11
4 C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
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