Day
2 – On having it all...finding happy
It
was in my late twenties that I learned the lesson of happiness versus
Joy. Real joy, I mean.
Joy spelled J-E-S-U-S.
Unchanging joy in the midst of struggle and hardship. I remember learning this via a text I was teaching the youth group in a study written for youth. It pierced me squarely in the heart at the ripe old age of about 28. Maybe this was the time in my life when I could most clearly hear it. Maybe it had been spoken to me many times before and I was only just then able to listen. Whatever the life challenge at the time, I began to look around me and hear with a fresh heart the reality of a culture obsessed with happiness.
Do
what makes you happy. Go where you are happy. Love the one who makes
you happy. These are the voices of a thousand commercials, the
endless rattle of the daytime talk shows, the lure of movies and
novels and worldliness that leaves us wanting.
Then,
I started studying Scripture more and more and I found another voice.
Jesus tells us in His Word that He certainly wants you to find Joy in
Him and only Him. But also, and this may be controversial...He wants
you to have both. Happiness matters to Him.
Whoa
now! I have been like Solomon, you say. I have searched the world
over. I have searched for happiness, I have worked for happiness. I
have spent money to get happy. I have climbed the ladder, to get
happy, and I have learned that the world has little to offer, only
Jesus brings the True to True Happiness.
Again,
I would tell you that you are correct. However, if you read
Ecclesiastes 3:11-14, I think you will find a better answer to the
joy v. happiness battle. Let's read the passage below -
He
has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put
eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what
God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I
perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and
to do good as long as they live;13 also that
everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this
is God's gift to man.
14 I
perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be
added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that
people fear before him.
The
God-breathed words of King Solomon in verse 12 tells us, “I
perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and
to do good as long as they live”
Note
the word choice here - “to be joyful”, not have joy. The
kind of joy recommended here is an action. The Hebrew word in the
passage is lismowah (minus critical accent marks here). The word is
from the root samach, which can mean a myriad of things from rejoice
to make merry, to take pleasure in, and my favorite “give
happiness.”
The
root word can be a subject, an adjective, but in every Biblical text
this word, lismowah, is translated as an action word. With my limited
Hebrew knowledge, this tells me that lismowah was meant to be an
action. Most translations use a form of joy or rejoice, but the NIV
sinks in deep for this discussion by using the disctinctive
translation – be happy.
While
we must take Ecclesiastes as a part within the whole of Scripture, we
also can not discount it. Psalm 106 also uses this exact word in
verse 5 below:
Praise
the Lord!
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord,
or declare all his praise?3 Blessed are they who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times!
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord,
or declare all his praise?3 Blessed are they who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times!
4 Remember
me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;
help me when you save them,5 that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory with your inheritance.
help me when you save them,5 that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory with your inheritance.
This is a long song that tells the story of the generations of the Israelites turning from the Lord and ignoring His work, dishonoring Him. But it is also a psalm that proclaims the forgiveness, the pity, the mercy of the Lord to His people on earth. It is a psalm of unchanging joy, but it is also a psalm of the experience of that joy, and the overflowing happiness that is found in a life lived for the Lord. It tells the story of the Lord rushing to His people's aid, praise to a Lord who physically and supernaturally fends off nations and keeps His people from destruction. A psalm of the Lord giving happy for the time, along with joy unchanging.
The
problem with our view is not happy versus joy. The problem comes in
when we try to find happy in things that are opposed to God. We will
not find happy in tawdry tv. We will not find happy in a man that
sets God on a shelf. We will not find happy in a big home with lots
of things and no people to enjoy them. Happiness in itself is not
inherently evil. Happiness itself is a good gift of God, and we find
it in oh so many things.
Happy looks a lot more like Jesus in our hearts, pouring out in a million different ways. Your context is different than mine. How does your heart pour over with happiness, real and genuine happy, as well as joy, to the world around you? Happy isn't something you'll experience all the time. That isn't the goal. It's not what we were made for – happy, happy, and more happy. Sometimes, as Ecclesiastes is always quick to point out, our season is simply not happy. It is Joy unchanging, but while a particular season may not contain a whole lot of happy, other seasons will, in abundance!
Sit
back, sister. Let the Spirit do His work. Ask Him to fill you with
joy and to give you happiness, in its season. Take pleasure in the
little things, even in a dark season, because you know they are
provided by One who loves you infinitely.
Lord,
I don't know the season of each of these wonderful women. I ask you
to pour out your mercies new every day, that you raise up your Spirit
to work in them in a new way, each day. Lord, thank you for the
things that make us happy, for snowflakes and ice cream, for warm sun
soaked skin and children laughing, for wine around a table of good
friends, and a quiet moment spent alone. We praise you, Lord, that
you give us Joy and you bring us happiness. Help us to always rejoice
in the name of Your son, Jesus. In His name, Amen.
Discussion
questions:
What
things make you happy?
What
people make you happy and why?
What are
your thoughts on happiness and joy?
Share a
prayer of rejoicing and praise for any of the things and people that
God has given you in this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts!