Kay Warren, wife of the popular pastor of Saddleback Church,
wrote Choose Joy Because Happiness Isn’t
Enough to share her own struggle to experience joy. Even before their
family’s public grief over their youngest son’s suicide related to mental
illness, Warren acknowledged, “Joy does not come easily to me. I’m more of a
glass-half-empty kind of gal.”[1]
Despite its cynical-sounding title, we know Warren is on to
something. In Ascending Leaders’ Living
Joy,[2] we note that the Bible rarely uses the
words happy or happiness, but joy or rejoice appear a total of 347 times.
Are we just quibbling over semantics or is there a
difference between joy and happiness? We think so. The distinction is in the
source of our feeling. The reasons for our happiness are often external circumstances.
When things are going well—we and those we love are healthy, gainfully
employed, well fed—we’re happy. When any of those things disappear, our
happiness may, too.
In contrast, joy is not dependent on circumstances. Joy is
an internal resource—a gift or fruit of the Spirit. With Kay Warren we
acknowledge that joy is a choice. It doesn’t just happen. Our circumstances may
not contribute to joy. In fact, for many the holidays are anything but a season
of joy. They are painful reminders of family members who have died,
relationships that are strained, and hard economic realities. But, “the
inevitable painful times in our lives can be a source of joy because, in
addition to pulling us closer to God, they build perseverance which leads to
maturity and fullness of life.”[3]
Our prayer is that you know that kind of joy not only in
this season, but throughout the year and years ahead.
Our gift to you is FREE DOWNLOADS of Living Joy and any or all of the other 6-session workbooks in our Spirit's Fruit collection.
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