This has been one tough year. Sickness, at one point my Mom came close to dying (being resuscitated by my boys and then taken to the ER). We've been hit with one financial expenditure after another. In just the last week, over 2,000.00 in sudden expenses have come our way. For us, it might as well have been 2 million in sudden expenses.
That comes from having cars more than a decade old that are held together with Duck Tape, a family of seven, and a house that was never well built in the first place getting older by the day. All while helping our oldest navigate jobs and college, get through home school, and the usual tricks and traps that life can throw at you.
Yet through it all, sometimes it's nice to lean on that old notion that were are to be joyful, not happy. That line: "God would have us to be joyful, even when our hearts lie panting on the floor." There is something to that. For joy, not necessarily happiness, is what we are called to embrace.
Happiness comes and goes. Things are going well in life? I'm happy. Ohio State has finally convinced me it can win the big games? I'm happy. Bad things happen to people I don't like? Yes, secretly I can be happy.
But joy is another thing. It comes from God, not things. Since its source is God, it puts things into a different perspective. Broke poor? Joyful, but not happy. Teams are losing, things are going crazy in the country? Joyful, not necessarily happy. Bad things happen to those I don't like? Joyful, not happy. See how that works?
Joy is what we strive for, not happiness, which can be fleeting. So as we wind up another skin of our teeth year, it's nice to hear an upbeat reminder that it's joy we seek, because therein lies the key to true happiness.
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. 1 Peter 1:8
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