These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. —John 15:11
Jesus cites joy—our joy, your joy—as one of the reasons for his teaching. Live the way he says to live, rest in the confidence that God is in control, and your joy will be full. You’ll be joyful.
But Jesus also made it clear that you will have trouble in this world. See John 16:33. “Trouble,” to me, sounds a lot like unhappiness.
In fact, turning to the way of Jesus can actually increase the unhappiness. That has certainly been my experience. I wrote previously about how a key word at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry—metanoeo—translates to more than repent. However, experiencing the kingdom of God does involve repentance, and as C. S. Lewis profoundly wrote in Mere Christianity, “Repentance is no fun at all.”
Turning the page is difficult. Abandoning the sin, slavery, false gods, and idols that once made a person “happy” might entail shining a light into corners that no one but God wants illuminated. It might also throw the believer’s life off course and disrupt the lives of people close to him. There might be loss and pain.
All of this points to why I think Jesus must have meant something other than what we call “happiness” when he promised that we would have joy. Happiness and joy are two different things, in other words—and joy is better.
I live in the United States. Here, happiness is something to be pursued. The “pursuit of happiness” is written into one of our founding documents. We look for happiness in achievement, attainment, comfort, and relief. We seek happiness in the pleasant turn of events.
The problem is, the events keep on turning. Once happiness is obtained, it can’t be held for long. This is the reason for the maxim, “Money can’t buy happiness.” If you try to purchase happiness, the expenditures can never stop!
Joy, on the other hand, can be bought once and for all. Jesus bought it on the cross.
But Jesus also made it clear that you will have trouble in this world. See John 16:33. “Trouble,” to me, sounds a lot like unhappiness.
In fact, turning to the way of Jesus can actually increase the unhappiness. That has certainly been my experience. I wrote previously about how a key word at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry—metanoeo—translates to more than repent. However, experiencing the kingdom of God does involve repentance, and as C. S. Lewis profoundly wrote in Mere Christianity, “Repentance is no fun at all.”
Turning the page is difficult. Abandoning the sin, slavery, false gods, and idols that once made a person “happy” might entail shining a light into corners that no one but God wants illuminated. It might also throw the believer’s life off course and disrupt the lives of people close to him. There might be loss and pain.
All of this points to why I think Jesus must have meant something other than what we call “happiness” when he promised that we would have joy. Happiness and joy are two different things, in other words—and joy is better.
I live in the United States. Here, happiness is something to be pursued. The “pursuit of happiness” is written into one of our founding documents. We look for happiness in achievement, attainment, comfort, and relief. We seek happiness in the pleasant turn of events.
The problem is, the events keep on turning. Once happiness is obtained, it can’t be held for long. This is the reason for the maxim, “Money can’t buy happiness.” If you try to purchase happiness, the expenditures can never stop!
Joy, on the other hand, can be bought once and for all. Jesus bought it on the cross.
* * *
I have a friend named Jason who has faced trials. He is now a pastor at the Foursquare Church in Mansfield, Ohio. I hope you find yourself there one Sunday and get to hear him speak.
In his early years of ministry, he says he did people the disservice of telling them how wonderful everything would be if they gave their lives to Christ.
Looking back truthfully upon his own years as a Christian, he says that not everything has been wonderful.
With God or without God, you will have trouble in this world. But facing the trials with God gives those trials a radically different meaning.
* * *
In that verse where he spoke of troubles, Jesus added something more.
“I have overcome the world,” he said.
Join with Christ and follow his way, and you have overcome the world along with him.
That is, you have overcome your life, your house, your money, your family, your body—even your dreams—and even all of your difficulties. All of it. All of these things are temporary possessions that God gave us for a reason. We outlast all of them. For now, you have each of these things within this world for a purpose that God will reveal to you, step by step, over the course of your walk with him.
Part of that purpose is our own instruction. The world is a training ground. At some point you will be released, liberated into some service that is tailored to you within a realm that is bigger than this one. Our stay in this time of troubles is brief.
And after a while of trusting the Lord, you do get a sense of this—a sense of belonging to something vaster and fuller than the earth.
I am such a new believer that my own sense of belonging is still less constant than I would like. I drop back frequently into the worries of the world. Yet there is a new awareness that is growing beneath my feet. I fall less far each time. This awareness is an energetic lightness, a perspective of skirting above the world and free of its events. It is a feeling like walking on water.
This is my joy. It is a piece of God’s perfect joy. And it comes not from pursuing, but instead from giving in. Not from obtaining, but instead from letting go.
I want more of this joy, and with more trust in God and more of his work in me, I believe I will have it. And as I do get this joy, I discover something else: The joy is a secure foundation on which to build my happiness as well.
