Is Joy More than Happiness?

 I have been experiencing a lot of joy this past week.  That experience is not of joy – rather, it was about joy. I have had more than a few encounters with people writing about joy.

Joy is something I have thought about and pondered in my life.  I must confess that I have had a difficult time really getting a handle on what an experience of joy actually is.  There is lots of theory and exposition about joy but if asked I would have trouble describing the direct experience of joy. I am quite able to know when I am happy but what is joy when it is experienced?

Checking out the definition of joy on-line was not very helpful.  The first source I came across defined joy in terms of happiness - simply “great happiness.”  Another was a bit more detailed, “the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.”  So, can it be that joy is just an exaggerated experience of happiness or is there a difference between joy and happiness? 

Here are excerpts of some of the expositions regarding joy that came my way this week.

Dr. Barbara Holmes’ (1943–2024) makes a direct distinction between happiness and joy:

Make no mistake about it, there’s a real difference between happiness and joy. The sources of happiness are very fleeting. Buy something new and see how fleeting it is. That new car, that new house, they lose their luster in a mere few weeks. True joy is foundational. It’s a basis of God’s love for us, sealed with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Could there be any firmer foundation? 

 

Mystic and theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1981) writes of faith as the most secure foundation for joy.  However, he does seem to conflate joy with happiness but gives us an expanded idea of joy:  

There are some who are dependent upon the mood of others for their happiness…. There are some whose joy is dependent upon circumstances…. There is a strange quality of awe in their joy, that is but a reflection of the deep calm water of the spirit out of which it comes. It is primarily a discovery of the soul, when God makes known [God’s] presence, where there are no words, no outward song, only the Divine Movement. This is the joy that the world cannot give. This is the joy that keeps watch against all the emissaries of sadness of mind and weariness of soul. This is the joy that comforts and is the companion, as we walk even through the valley of the shadow of death. 

 Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis also sees a relationship between joy and happiness:

Joy is that feeling of well-being, pleasure, and happiness that accompanies us as we move through life. It alters the way we see the world, its people, and ourselves. Joy tints our perspective with optimism and the confidence that we will go through the hard things, and though we might be bruised or battered, we’ll come out on the other side. Joy is the wellspring of resistance, the water of life. Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and smile from the inside out. There, there it is. Can you feel it? That’s joy!  

Considering all this, it seems to me that happiness is dependent on externalities.  You are happy if life brings you things that give you happiness.  However, joy seems to be something that comes from your inner being – from a deep source that is ironically from both the outside and inside. 

When thinking about joy this past week, I was able to identify an experience of joy when attending a funeral of someone I didn’t know personally – the mother of a colleague.  The funeral service ended with the choir singing the In Paradisum from Faure’s Requiem.  The music was external, but the experience of joy came from somewhere internal.  It was not happiness - it was joy.   I realized that I had experienced that many times before but didn’t recognize it s joy.  May you be blessed with joy on your journey.

Both Hope and Despair

Just after I finished posting my last edition of this blog on the subject of Hope and Despair, Lorna and I had a living example of just that – we had a an experience of both hope and despair.  Our cat Trixie (although she is much more Lorna’s cat) who is an indoor branch of the feline species, took the opportunity to explore the great outdoors.  Now I’m not completely convinced that this is an example of synchronicity, I think it is a candidate for this phenomenon.  Here is Lorna’s description of the event as recorded on Facebook: 

I was gardening and I didn't realize the door hadn't latched. Trixie likes to watch me out the window when I am in the yard. When she noticed the door was slightly open, she decided to explore a bit. I had just finished my work and turned to see a large orange and black cat scoot under the back porch. I was wearing my outside (baseball) hat, which scares her for some reason.

 

I thought it can't be Trixie; Trixie's not that big. Then I saw the open door.

She next ran out from under the back porch - Greg caught a glimpse-and likely went from there under the deck. Ater a few minutes of calling her then googling about indoor cats escaping outdoors, I tramped around the forsythia bush as suggested but I frightened her. She startled me by darting out from under it. She disappeared before I could see where she went

 

Anyhow, we left both doors open and put out treats and familiar smelling things like her litter box and blanket. I had an email from my daughter to distract me.

 

So, just as I got to the point in the email where I was telling her how unnerving it was, and how worried I was and what if she didn't come back, and wasn't it lucky she'd been chipped when I heard a small "meep," so I looked over my shoulder. Greg had just seen her in the bedroom, so he quietly closed the back door, and motioned me to close the front door. She must have walked right behind me without my noticing. Anyhow I tiptoed over and closed the door.

 

She came back about an hour after she got out. So, I have Joanna to thank because I decided to reply to her, and thus let Trixie come in on her own !!!

 

This is a great example of how hope and despair can be experienced in the same event.  The reaction by both Lorna and me swung between both ends of what I can describe as the hope and despair axis – despair that we will never see Trixie and again and we will never have another cat to the hope she will return if we do what Google advises. 

 I hope that any times of despair will be accompanied with hope on your journey. 

 

Hope and Despair

I recently listened to an episode of On Being with host Krista Tippett, which asked the questions: What is filling you with despair? And what is giving you hope?  These are very good questions for these times.  So, I would like to pose those questions to the readers of this blog, what is filling you with despair? And what is giving you hope?

Before you consider these questions, let me clarify what I mean by the terms hope and despair.  Generally, despair is defined as being without hope.  However, this is not all that helpful until we define hope.  I believe it is better, for our purposes, to define this as being resigned to the inevitable; to have no possibility (hope) that the current situation will not improve and will lead to the end that is in front of us and there is no possibility that something will intervene to prevent that from happening.

Turning to hope, it is often the case that hope is used synonymously with optimism.  I can be optimistic that some situation or event will turn out okay in the end regardless – regardless of what?  There is nothing that is required of you to bring about the outcome you are wanting.  Hope, on the other hand, is to my mind, the possibility that things will turn out for the best if forces are brought to bear on that issue and work to bring about the desired outcome.

That force is sometimes – perhaps even often – a divine one which will bring about the best of all possible worlds or at least the best of possible outcome in this case.  This is best expressed by the saying of Julian of Norwich, the 14th century English mystic, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."   However, in hope there is also the possibility thahopt the forces will be based here on earth comprised of people working to achieve the desired ends.  Sometimes these forces combine as in the Social Gospel movement to bring about the Kingdom of God which will encompass the ends that are hoped for.  This can be considered faith in action.

It is easy to despair these days with the wildfires raging across many parts of Western Canada, and warfare raging in Ukraine, and the slow-motion destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza.  However, we must not give up hope and let despair win. 

So, I will leave you with the questions I began with: What is filling you with despair? And what is giving you hope?  

  

The ‘If Only’ Life

The Gospel reading for Sunday was John 5.1-9 which tells of Jesus healing the lame man by the pool of Bethzatha.  Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?” 

The ill man needed to realize that he would have to approach life in a new and radically different way if and when he was healed.  For pretty much his whole life he had been dependant on others for what he was given.  Now, he would literally and figuratively have to stand on his two feet and become responsible for how he lived his life. 

He probably could not comprehend what that meant.  Therefore, Jesus was asking him if he was ready and willing to live life in a new way.  We don’t know how he fared after the healing in his new life – scripture doesn’t tell us, so we can only imagine. 

But what has it to do with us here and now today?  We are not sitting by the pool of Bethzatha waiting for someone to take us down to the pool to be healed.  But is there an equivalent to that?  We can be waiting for God to make things right in our life.  We can live in the ‘if only’ life.  I would be happy and fulfilled ‘if only’ I had more money or ‘if only’ I had more friends, or ‘if only’ I had a different job – that was a big one for me earlier in my life.  It might be some handicap or illness that someone is experiencing which is quite understandably challenging – who am I to judge the challenges others have in their lives.

But what is the ‘if only’ that is keeping us from living the full life we are intended to live?  Whatever is keeping us from living the lives that God intends us to live, Jesus is telling us that we are loved by Jesus and Jesus will be there to help us and support us just as he was for that man waiting and hoping to taken to the healing waters of Bethzatha. 

Whatever our circumstances, are we ready to live our life in the way of Jesus?  Are we ready to give up the ‘if only’ in our lives?   Jesus is calling us to do just that.  

Where’s the Holy Humour

Bruce Tallman, who is a spiritual Director, wrote recently about attending a lecture by a Michael Higgins on his new book, The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis:

According to (Michael) Higgins, Francis was first and foremost a pastor, a pope of the heart because, although an intellectual like most Jesuits, Francis believed, like Blaise Pascal, that the heart is greater than reason. The heart has reasons of its own that reason alone cannot comprehend. As Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote, “There are things that can only be understood by eyes that have cried.”

I Believe that when we do just that – let our hearts do the thinking we approach what has been called Holy Humour.  I have written about Holy Humour previously.  So, what then do we make of Holy Humour?  Can there be true humor in such a serious thing as religion?  One author who explores this is Helen Luke in her collection of essays, The Laughter at the Heart of Things.  One commentary I came upon summarizes the essence of what Luke is saying very well:

What is at the heart of the matter, according to Helen Luke, is a sense of proportion.  Luke quotes T.S. Eliot and notes that, “Eliot is, expressing here (in the quote) the identity of a sense of humour with the sense of proportion and the humility that this engenders”.  What is at the heart of things the joy of seeing disproportion restored to proportion.

At bottom, the humour is getting us in touch with joy – the joy of being part of God’s creation.  After all, to quote a group of musical religious sister – the Medical Mission Sisters, joy is like the rain.  Perhaps those are raindrops on roses to bring in another song. 

May you be blessed with holy humour on your journey.  Remember joy is a serious matter not to be taken too lightly – too much of the time.  

 

That’s How the Light Gets In

As is often the case, one of the Daily Meditations from Richard Rohr gave me something to reflect on.  This one reminded me of the challenges that we are given and give ourselves to be perfect.  This apparent decree by Jesus to be perfect is something that needs to be reframed or understood differently. 

Divine perfection is precisely the ability to include what seems like imperfection. Indigenous religions largely understand this, as do the Scriptures (see Psalms 98, 104, 148, or Daniel 3:57–82 [1]). In Job 12:7–10, and most of Job 38–39, YHWH praises strange animals and elements for their inherently available wisdom—the “pent up sea,” the “wild ass,” the “ostrich’s wing”—reminding humans that we’re part of a much greater ecosystem, which offers lessons in all directions.   Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations April 30, 2025

Years ago, I discovered a small book, or I should say it found me.  It was entitled A Prayer for the Cosmos by Neil Douglas-Klotz.  This little gem is a translation of The Lord’s Prayer and other saying of Jesus from Aramaic sources.  One of the passages that the book addressed was from the Gospel of Matthew (5: 48).  This is traditionally translated as ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’.  However, the translation by this author is, ‘Be all-embracing, as you heavenly Father is all-embracing.” 

This passage and similar ones direct Christians to seek perfection and the understanding of God, as all good.  I could not reconcile them with my understanding of humanity as creatures of God, created in the image of God.  This new translation reconciled that dichotomy for me and brought my Perfection Complex into a conscious awareness.  This enables me to reconcile these passages with my understanding of the human psyche.  We are to seek wholeness not perfection.  I will continue to relate to my Perfection Complex in new consciousness and new appreciation for the drive for perfection that has been part of me – recognized or not though much of my life.  I will continue to offer my imperfect offerings to the source of my being which desires my wholeness and not my perfection.

Finally, I offer you my favourite lyrics from Leonard Cohen which encourages us to forget our attempts at perfection:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

I invite you to reconsider your desire for perfection and let the light into your life. 

Let the Mystery Be

 This morning I am pondering the mystery of life.   I have been fascinated by the Book of Job for many years.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job – if not for his children who perish. All that Job loses is restored to him including new children to replace those who perished  - as if a child you lose can be replaced by a new child or children - and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life. On this subject I will quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

May you be blessed by the mystery in your life.