Happiness vs. joy…
marieldenyse:
kddo:
Earlier I saw a post about “happiness vs. joy.” and I was going to speak about it. Sorry I didn’t get to it sooner. Life, you know.
I’ve heard somewhere that the word “happiness” was derived from the same root as the word “happening” … so I guess if you follow that line of reasoning, then happiness is probably based upon what’s happening. Happy things happen … and then you’re happy.
But joy is something else entirely.
And then if you’re talking about the “joy of life,” then it isn’t only something different, it’s an entirely separate realm of experience. Joy is one of the things we enjoy in life. The Person’s ability to grow fruit in our lives isn’t dependent on happy circumstances (actually, I find it often quite the opposite).
Anyway, this “happiness vs. joy” conversation is sort of a touchy subject for me lately.
I’m not religious or anything, but I go to church sometime. I go with my mother and little sister. I remember the pastor was talking about Happiness and his opinion on it.
His reasoning went something like this:
“Joy is a fruit of the Spirit … so anyone who has the Holy Spirit within them will have joy because the fruit will just naturally grow. Since I don’t see joy in your life, you must not have the Holy Spirit. So you can’t be a Christian if you don’t have the Holy Spirit.”
Fortunately, I realized at the time that this person was confusing “joy” with “happiness.” It’s true that I wasn’t particularly happy at that moment in time in my life. But I did have joy. Joy to know that somehow, someway, somewhere I would work all this horrible stuff I was living with for good. Joy to know that even if life continued on just as badly as it was right then for the rest of my earthly life, this life isn’t the “end” of the story. I was living with that saying, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future,” running continually through my head.
The Bible says that for the joy set before Jesus when he endured the cross. I don’t think Jesus was necessarily “happy” while He was tortured and endured a painful, cruel death. But did Jesus have joy in the midst of it all? Oh, I’m sure He did … joy to know that His sacrifice would work the Ultimate Good in humankind (allowing all of us an opportunity to find forgiveness and peace with God). Joy to know that this life isn’t all there is. Joy to have accomplished what He’d been sent to do.
When I told a friend of mine what was said to me about how I probably wasn’t religious because I didn’t have “joy” in my life in the midst of the trials I was facing, my friend said, “Daniel, You don’t need religion to be happy, everything is so misconstrued these days people need a way to use religion as a catalyst for their self-hate”
Exactly. It was really nice to have someone who knows me well, offer some sane perspective in the midst of that crazy time.
So. Happiness vs. joy. I like to be happy (who doesn’t?), but I’d rather have joy any day. Joy lasts even in the midst of the trials of life. Joy isn’t dependent on circumstances. Joy is strength. Joy is internal. Joy is eternal.
Even though my heart is breaking… even though I’ve lost my hopes and dreams and plans and material things… I can (and do) still have joy. There might not always be a smile on my face, but on a deeper, soul-stirring level, there’s joy in my heart; joy in myself.
Not the happiness of happenings.
haha, I think I may have to disagree with that. With the terms of Joy and happiness being so vague, I feel as if the definition of happiness for some may fit the definition of happiness in your case.
I guess I’m one of those cases. The word happiness is a bit of a touchy subject for me, for I believe that the purpose of life, is in fact happiness
The American Heritage dictionary defines joy in three different ways
- Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.
- The expression or manifestation of such feeling.
-
A source or an object of pleasure or satisfaction:
Where as the definition of Happiness is defined as
- a state of well being and contentment
These definitions stated in dictionary terms defines joy as an emotion, a feeling in terms of happiness, or an object that emits satisfaction. Happiness is defined as a state of being rather than simply a feeling.
Of course, these are merely technicalities, but I believe deeply with the message you’re conveying.
This debate of “Happiness vs joy” is directly parallel to the conflict of “pleasure vs happiness” and “pain vs suffering”
With this, I believe that the terms (or more specifically the definitions) are often mismatched for one another in our everyday lives, in which humankind often pursues a certain value in mistake for another.
Often, we try and find “happiness” by watching movies, playing video games, eating good food, or engaging in activities such as drugs and sex. One may say that these objects and events may “make me happy”, but that’s often misused. These events encourage the release of endorphins in the brain: pleasure.
Happiness, on the other hand, is dependent on one’s state of mind rather than external events (Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness). So Jesus dying on the cross? Painful, yes. Pleasure, no. But happy? Perhaps so, happy that he was doing what was right.
Happiness reflects one’s outlook on life, for happiness comes from within rather than externally. If one was to be truly enlightened, the events of the world would be meaningless in deterring from one’s happiness. Happinesses is far from being simply a state of emotion, for happiness is a state of mind and a state of outlook on life. So in the Happiness vs Joy debate? In essence, I believe we are both right, just defined by different terms.
Joy? Happiness? However we may define these terms, the conclusion is all the same. One should pursue more than just the pleasure of the moment; one should pursue the optimistic state of being of happiness or joy. With this, the events and lack of materials that we see in our lives as being “bad” eventually become meaningless with a right mindset.
One should carry joy wherever they go; one should be in a state of happiness.
