Happiness, Joy, and Truth

I’ve often noted that people confuse the concepts of Joy and Happiness. God, who is the author of all things, created a distinction between Joy and Happiness in humans. Too often, humans will experience Happiness in the wrong things and consider it Joy. People can be Happy that some event has occurred and falsely associate it with the Joy that life can offer.

Christian Joy is not synonymous with any form of Happiness to which most people are accustomed. True Joy – Christian Joy - is Happiness with Truth. With Truth. It is Happiness in the knowledge that one is in sync with the reality of the universe, i.e., God. Indeed, it is often a Happiness that exists even in times of persecution, suffering, and death because it is grounded in the reality of God.

Happiness without Truth is ultimately joyless. It is usually deceitful. It is frequently consummation of all one thinks they want followed by bitter disappointment. It is like finally dating that one person you’ve always wanted to date only to realize that the initial Happiness is followed by pain, disappointment, and sometimes the realization that it was never meant to be. And it was never meant to be because it was never grounded in reality to begin with. One problem is that people associate love with emotion and lust (or sexual attraction) … but not with Truth. Truth is just as an important factor in love as emotion and sexual attraction. The Truth of who we attach ourselves to – whether it conforms to the Truth of reality – is just as important as the emotion and sexual attraction involved. Someone might say, “I love this person.” To that I say, “Good. You are supposed to love that person. You’re supposed to love everyone. But how you are to express that love depends upon the Truth of reality and not solely upon subjective emotions and sexual attraction.”

In the same way, Happiness without the Truth is fleeting because it is without foundation, without Truth. It is a lusting for life but not a connection to the reality that is life’s foundation (apologies to Iggy Pop: good song). It is sucking on the foam but not drinking in the latte … and then being angry and disappointed that the coffee doesn’t taste that good. Unfortunately, most people in such a situation do not respond with self-reflection and repentance but a further, bitter fist-shaking at reality, characterizing it as society being constructed against them.

Thus, Happiness without Truth is joyless and ends in bitter disappointment. Christian Joy is Happiness with Truth that endures even in persecution, suffering, and a society constructed against Truth.