Oct 26, 2018
By Pastor JR Shick
Have you ever been around someone who seems to be oozing with delight all the time? I have met only a few people who exhibit such extreme happiness and I found it incredibly intoxicating. This intoxication left me desiring and wanting more. I don’t think happiness would be the right word to describe the way they look at life. For example, I know this gentleman by the name of Terry. He is in his mid-eighties and is one of the most upbeat people you will ever meet. When talking with him you would never know that he has stage-4 cancer. He never complains, never even lets on that he has anything ailing him. If anyone had something to complain about it would be him, and yet he doesn’t. WHY? I will get back to that in a bit.
At my last place of employment on a factory floor, there was an employee who made a comment that he would be happier and care for his job more if the company would pay more. So I asked him how much it would take to make him happy. He was unable to give me an amount and continued to be baffled in looking for an answer. Many people come with an attitude of: “If I had more money, I would be able to get myself out of debt and be happy.” Or, “If I could buy a new car I would be happier.” This is true in relationships: “If I were just with a different person, I could be happier.” Or “If only my significant other would do this or not do that, I would be happier.”
The problem when people think this way is they are only looking for short-term happiness or a quick fix. If you are looking to be just happy, you will never be completely satisfied. Being happy or feeling happiness is just an emotion and can come and go like a wave. Sadness and anger are also emotions and have their place and can come and go just like happiness. If we receive this amount of money, we find out that we will need more. If we get a new car, it will lose its luster and new car smell after a while. If we did not fix the issue from the last relationship that made us leave, it will only happen again in the next. Then we will be in the same place we were before—looking for happiness.
So if happiness is not the answer to what many of us are looking for, then what is it?!?! JOY!! I know many of you are saying that happiness and joy are the same thing. I would have to disagree with you. How many of us have witnessed individuals going through tough moments in their lives and still have calm in the chaos? The last night before Jesus was crucified, He spoke about this very issue. John 15:9-11 says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Remember Terry? This is what Terry has said he found—joy. A completeness in knowing joy in the Lord. The Lord’s joy shines through the pain and the trials my friend Terry faces on a daily basis. Terry does not see hopelessness or despair in what he is facing; he only sees the Lord working for HIS glory! This is a principle we could all live by. The waves of emotions, like anger, pain, and sorrow, will come and go, but our hearts can remain light in God even through the endless waves of life. Joy is the buoyancy that comes from the enjoyment of the unchanging privileges from God’s love and grace.
