Happiness vs. Joy

The U.S. Declaration of Independence guarantees the "pursuit of happiness." That strikes me as funny. It guarantees that we can pursue it. That's a pretty safe bet that will never be cashed in.

In other words, you can chase happiness all you want, we don't care. "Good luck with finding it!" We Americans have no idea what happiness is. "If happiness is two cars, then what does three do for the happiness quotient?" "If one pill makes you feel pretty good, then what does two do?"

Happiness. "Are you happy?" a good friend asks you. Now you have to check yourself in order to answer the question honestly. "Am I happy?" you ask yourself. "I guess so," you say to yourself and to your friend.

Happiness is the minor leagues. Happiness is for beginners. It's for those players who can't handle the big stuff. The big stuff? The big stuff is joy.

Now you're playing with the pros. No more softball for you. Joy is the entrance into a realm that few are able to enter. Joy is risky. Joy may ask too much of you. It's better to play around with this "happiness" game instead of settling down and settling into the container that our Christian faith calls "joy."

For joy is a container. We don't usually think of joy as a holder of things, but it is. The container that is joy contains all of life. Joy turns nothing away because to turn just one thing away would take away from the wholeness that we call life. Joy is not afraid. Joy does not hold back.

Because you see, happiness can only grab onto things that make you feel good. Why? Because that's all that happiness can offer. To ask any more of the word would be to defy its definition.

Joy, however, contains everything - what feels good, what feels bad and what is even indifferent or confusing to you. That is because joy knows no limits. It's ironic but its container cannot actually be contained. But, we try our best to hold onto, retain and embrace the life's elements that joy contains.

Jesus says that our "joy may be complete" when it is rooted in his message and in his life. The completeness of Jesus' wish for us is encircling our lives with his joy.

Haven't you met someone who's health is so compromised that you want to yell to God yourself for a quick healing and miracle? Yet, this person has a contentment that you'd kill for. That's joy. Haven't you searched your life how many times and keep coming up with that stupid happiness question? That's the beginning of searching for joy.

You can't pursue joy like you do happiness. Joy is life's collecting and simmering and saying, "it's o.k."