The Third Sunday of Advent is often know as the Sunday to lift up the concept of “Joy.” Recently someone told me they named their child Joy (middle name) because of a reflection I wrote on it at this time of year. So, I decided to resurrect that same reflection and I offer it today. I share it with joy:

True Joy

The other day, someone asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks:

“What is the difference between happiness and joy in the Bible?”

We often use those words as if they mean the same thing, but in Scripture they point in different directions. Happiness is usually described as something that flows from what people do or do not do. Joy, on the other hand, is more often described as something God gives, a state that God is bringing into being.

The Psalms say, “Happy are those who are blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord,” and, “Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart.” Here, happiness is the fruit of our actions, our choices, our way of life. However, we also hear a different note in the holy text: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete,” and, “The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” Joy here is a gift, something that wells up from God’s life in us, not from circumstances going our way.

Happiness is a good thing, but it is also fleeting and fragile. It ebbs and flows with the ups and downs of life. Joy is deeper. Joy can coexist with tears. As one who is often at the bedside of those close to death, I can say that those moments are difficult, sacred, full of sorrow—and yet also full of a quiet, profound joy. Happiness may not be present in those rooms, but joy often is.

To have happiness in life is a blessing. But joy endures to the end. We are not called to smile all the time, nor are we promised that everything will go our way. We are promised that God is for us and with us in all things, and that our relationship with God will endure through death into that place where there is no pain, grief, or sorrow, but life everlasting. That promise is at the heart of Advent: a God who comes to be with us, so that our joy may be complete.

In Joy,

Scott +