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.
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