What makes you happy?
“I’m not a very [happy] guy. There’s a little bit of, you know, woe is me that goes with the patch, the melancholy, the Irish thing, it’s raining. It really is. But I certainly… you know… Joy… I think that’s the thing that I would value over and above happiness. It’s, by the way, the hardest possible thing to contrive as an act. It’s very easy to describe anger, rage, very easy to get across happiness, you know. But joy is very difficult. Great artists have joy. And it’s… i don’t know what that is, but that’s the thing I value most.”
-Bono in response to Oprah asking him “What makes you happy?”
My wife and I recently had this discussion:
I’m not a happy person, but I’m a joyful person.
I find it difficult to be content, but I feel blessed.
In my prayer life, I’m often desperate and thankful at the same time. (Desperately thankful!?)
I don’t really understand it. But I think part of the answer is found in Psalm 126:5-6:
“Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.”
At least part of it has to do with our role as laborers for Christ. As we mature in our Christian walk, sadness and joy become ever more intermingled, I think. Jesus himself was a “man of sorrow, acquainted with grief.” Yet, he was joyful: “For the joy set before him…”
I didn’t really answer your question. Happiness works for me on two levels — what am I thankful for and what gets me excited in a happy whoopee kind of way.
I’m thankful for:
– My wife.
– My kids.
– My job (any job. if you’ve ever been without one, you know what I mean)
– My church and the dear saints in it.
– My pastor.
– My weaknesses, through which I learn to trust the Lord.
What makes me go whoopee!
– A well-executed hit and run where a ground ball squirts through the right side of the infield, followed by a charging right fielder who in one motion scoops it out of the grass and throws a strike to third to nail the advancing runner. It’s a beautiful thing.
– A perfectly placed two-seam fastball, from Jake Peavy, headed toward Barry Bonds’ midsection and then, at the last second, tailing inward to the plate, catching the inside corner. Bonds just watches and is called out on strikes.
– My wife’s cheek, with my lips pressing against it.
– My daughter telling me that I’ve helped her to see God in a new way.
Joy vs Happiness. Sometimes I think we try to make more of a distinction between the two then there really is. It’s like the Christian thing to have joy, while mere unbelievers can be happy. Let’s not forget our humanity as we celebrate our spirituality. I see happiness as a component of joy. That emotional release when circumstances line up with our hopes and expectations.
Joy, though, does go beyond circumstances. One can have joy in the midst of a loss or a disappointment. How is that?
I reflect on Christ’s words in John 16:22
“Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”
and John 16:33
“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.²
So it seems the deeper seeds of joy are found in the hope we have in the risen Christ. That there is eternal life with Him. And as we grasp that, as our understanding of that deepens, our hold on this life loosens and our hold on heaven tightens.
That is joy. To not expect to find the ultimate highs on this side of life, but to anticipate eagerly the joys of the afterlife.
What a joy it is for me to not expect that this world owes me something. And what a joy it is for me to know that God has given me everything through Jesus Christ.
This frees me to get the most out of all of life.