What is Joy as Opposed to Happiness?
just a little slice of my personal experience
This past week I celebrated the wedding of my nephew, Jesse to Olamide, a Nigerian pilot in the US Air Force. She is a USA citizen with roots in her Nigerian culture, and so, we celebrated a Nigerian wedding on Thursday followed by a conventional wedding on Saturday. Both were saturated in dancing mirth. We were all happy and joyful. I have long occupied the role in my family of cheerleader, instigator, if not clown. Check out my dancing moves:
Okay, I’m not the best dancer, but I am filled with happiness and joy. What’s the difference? My nephew is a better dancer than I am. It’s his wedding. Check out his moves:
I can assure you that Jesse and Olamide were filled with happiness and joy. What’s the difference between happiness and joy? Happiness is rooted in circumstances and in behavioral responses. Joy is spiritual. The difference is fuzzy for the observer. I was happy to celebrate. Jesse and Olamide were most happy in the moment. But all of us were filled with joy - a spiritual condition.
We are happy in the occasion of two, very different families joining. Our happiness moved us to welcome each other to the degree of spanning cultural divides. The groom’s family donned Nigerian fashion:
But our joy is rooted in a spiritual connection. All of us united to Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, who is the giver of joy, experienced and displayed something more than happiness. In our celebration, we felt the difference between happiness and joy. We expressed both. But our smiles, dancing and speeches went beyond happiness. Our joy was a quality and expression that acknowledged a spiritual source and promoter of everything good.
Take a look at this happy couple:
You might think, “They are beautiful and thus attracted to each other, happy to be together. But they share more than physical, emotional, and social attraction. They share a spiritual connection resulting in joy. The source of such a spiritual bond is mysterious to say the least. It is for each of us to consider what the source of such joy is. What I can tell you as you pursue your pilgrimage toward the spiritual realm, is that there is a source and giver of joy that goes beyond mere happiness in the moment. Joy lifts us up and beyond the situation and circumstances of our experience, surprising us with a spiritual connection. This source adds to our happiness the gift of joy, which allows us to celebrate whether or not the circumstances of our lives are ideal. Behind every happy smile captured in a photo is a life full of stuff that is not right, comfortable, satisfying, or ideal. But joy defies these circumstances, allowing us to celebrate in the presence of a higher and deeper reality giving to us hope, peace, faith, and love that transcends our complicated circumstances.
My sister, mother of the groom, pictured in my post, read on Facebook and sent me a personal comment. She reminded me of our parents writing a little song for each of us children. She quoted the lyrics of my song:
Nathan, you are a very special boy / Nathan, you have brought us lots of joy / So, Nathan, follow God’s best for you / Keep your eyes on Jesus / And always be true.
Sappy, I know, but in my childhood, at my birthday celebrations, my parents would gather us around the piano to sing my song. It has truly informed me.
My parents also named me, “gift of God,” and the meaning of my name has also charted my course. One of my daily prayers is, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may I encourage others today and find ways to be a catalyst for joy in them.” Sometimes my words and actions fail to do so, but now and then, I pull it off.
Congratulations Nathan to you, your wife, and the happy couple! May God grant them a long and fruitful life together.
Your post caught my eye mainly because I was pondering the difference between joy and happiness earlier this weeks—largely because one of our deacons has been teaching a Sunday School class on the subject of joy. I find it interesting—although not surprising—that many in our society, including me, conflate joy and happiness even though I was vaguely unhappy about that conflation. But the more I looked into and considered the subject, it became evident that the two are quite different. Even secular sources recognize that joy is internal while happiness is external—something that can be seen.
We Christians know that joy is God’s gift, as you point out. Joy—true joy—is the manifestation of one’s salvation regardless of mood while happiness is transitory. The gift of children is a joy while watching them play can produce happiness just as their inevitable misbehavior produces displeasure. Certainly, unbelievers experience joy. But that is, I believe, a manifestation of Common Grace. Again, a gift from God.
All that is to say I found your post both timely and informative.