Happiness vs. Joy: Replanted by Living Water

"They are like a tree replated by streams of water, which bears fruit at just the right time and whose leaves don't fade. Whatever they do succeeds." - Psalm 1:3, Common English Bible translation

How hard it is to remember that joy is available to us. Joy is a gift, and sometimes it can feel like it comes in isolation. When I try to imagine what joy looks like, it is rarely in the quiet solitude of prayer and reflection—unless it comes with remembrance and thanksgiving for an experience that happened with others.

The difference between those who are happy and those who experience joy has to do with feeling and knowing: happiness is a momentary way of being, while joy is a steady, extended way of being. So consider this: the living water of God is our joy; our experiences of that living water are happiness; and our decision to seek out that water is our act of rejoicing. Yet you already know this—happiness is fleeting. We can’t be happy all of the time, even when we know the living water across the fullness of our waking and sleeping hours.

When we plant ourselves by the streams of water, we are practicing faith in a way that speaks joy. This is what I mean by rejoicing. Rejoicing is not an act built on our feelings, but a choice to engage in God’s great joy. In our rejoicing, we are able to experience happiness again and again—like a natural, God-given high. It comes from the refreshment of the waters of life, not unlike the awareness of the difference a drink of water makes in the heat of the sun.

Sometimes we get so used to the joys of life that we forget the Source. We lose track of our connection with God—a connection that requires connection with others. Slowly but surely, acting like we are enough on our own uproots us. When we grow distant from God’s joy, when we quit practicing rejoicing, we dry up.

But when we replant ourselves, we get to experience happiness: a moment that reminds us of what we were missing, and what we had forgotten or taken for granted. Happiness is a grace that wakes us from the depths of our despair.

Sometimes there is trauma, drama, self-deprecation, or false humility. We pretend that our hardest times have power over us. We believe the loudest emotions have power over us. We let our failures define our worth. We punish and deprive ourselves after every shortcoming, apologizing over and over and speaking of how unworthy we are to love and be loved.

It’s a hard thing to realize that we do not deserve God’s refreshing and loving grace—that we don’t deserve to be happy. Yet God tells us that we don’t get to make that choice if we choose to receive grace. By grace we will not shrivel up and prevent ourselves from being loved and bearing the fruit of giving that love to others. By grace we are loved no matter what we think, and no matter what is happening around us.

Just think.

What if we lived with a consistent knowing that suffering is not God’s desire for us? What if we named suffering rather than attempting to hide from it—or prevent ourselves from experiencing it? What if we learned from past mistakes and failures in our thinking? What if we quit making attempts to fix ourselves, to fix others, to fix situations, and to counterbalance our humanness?

Sometimes we don’t notice the symptoms of our illnesses and imperfections—symptoms born out of distancing ourselves from the great joy of God. My encouragement to you is to seek out joy as it comes through relationship with others, and through communities that embody agape love.

I also encourage you to receive the moments of happiness: the small smiles, laughs, and otherwise uplifting reminders that let you know joy is there—and will always be there for you—whether you tap into it actively or trust that it’s there subconsciously, nurturing and nourishing you in your thinking, your desires, and your day-to-day living.

When I listen to God, I listen for instructions that lead me to reset my mind so that the things I hope for align with the desires of Christ. When I listen to God, I listen for instructions that lead me to practice disciplines of prayer, play, rest, study, meditation, and worship so that my spirit is ever aligned with the heart of the Divine. When I listen to God, I listen for instructions that lead me to choose living over giving up on life—because I know that even if I am hopeless, in Christ my hope is built on a love greater than any I could ever have on my own.

I pray that we all find our way back to the streams of living water. And when our leaves are fading and all hope seems lost, I pray that we seek out one another for help paying attention—help reconnecting with the never-ending and unfailing joy of the Lord, time and again.