The words joy and happiness seem similar but at their core they are significantly different. I went to my standard resource – the Oxford Dictionary but sadly it fails the way dictionaries do sometimes with words of a more philosophical nature. Most often in these instances you get a circular definition along the lines of the following:

 

Happy – a joyous and happy state

Joy – a happy and joyous state

 

Obviously very unsatisfactory. So here is my own attempt at a somewhat more satisfactory treatment of the two:

 

Joy: ORIGIN Old French joie, from Latin gaudere ‘rejoice’. There is significant depth to the state of joy that far outweighs that of happiness. We often see the two as the same but they are in fact, at their foundation, as different as night and day, and like night and day – joy and happiness are best defined in light of one-another.

 

Happy: a euphoric state varying in intensity depending upon the trigger. Happiness is highly dependant upon situation not unlike velocity is highly dependant upon force. No force, no velocity. No euphoric situation – no happiness.

 

Now joy, as a state is more a sense of deep well-being. It is the kind of well-being that springs from a foundational belief of some sort. From my own perspective joy comes from truth…the truth that I am eternally loved by God. That I am a created being made in the image of my creator and that my value is not dependant upon any arbitrary need or accomplishment of mine. That I am soaring toward a goal that is wholly pure and purely holy.

 

Happiness on the otherhand is really a dependant emotion slave to circumstance and situation. Happiness is that chemical state of endorphin release in the brain that requires regular triggers.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against happiness…in fact I quite like being happy (that is, after all, the nature of the state). Some of my best friends are happy. 🙂 The point I am trying to make however is that our goal needs to be joy. If our goal becomes happiness we enter into endless downward spirals of addiction to various behaviours and attitudes while joy is not dependant upon even ourselves and our state.

 

What makes us happy? When I buy things I get happy. When I buy new clothes or more especially new technology I get happy. Pleasures of flesh make me happy. Eating Indian food makes me happy. The laughter of my children makes me happy. Jumping from a high cliff into cool crisp deep water on a warm blue sky day makes me happy. Being in the midst of people makes me happy. Being alone makes me happy.

 

What makes you happy? You buy a new home and you are happy…for a while. Then you start looking at blank walls and empty rooms and you are not so happy anymore. You buy things to put on the walls and this makes you happy again. You put new furniture in the rooms and you are happy again. But…the car in the drveway is getting kind of old…a little rusty. Happy has gone again…but maybe a new car (or two) would make you happy. So you buy it…but then the neighbour buys a new car – with a GPS…suddenly your happy is not so happy anymore. You get the idea.

 

The American constitution enshrouds the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" while the Canadian constitution guarantees the right to "life, liberty and security of the person". I am not surprised at the difference since the United States was born out of the enlightenment while Canada comes a little later out of a slightly more cynical and new modern era.

 

Really happiness is not a right because its nature is ever elusive. You cannot enshrine something that continues to need more to exist. You cannot hold it because like water it slips through your fingers and the quench that you briefly had is gone and you are thirsty again and want more.

 

Happiness is a drug and we are all addicted. Happiness, like any addiction can destroy you if it grows and becomes out of control. For proof see the following: gambling, alcoholism, drug addiction, debt, etc. See the recent economic collapse of markets all around the world arguably triggered by hundreds of millions of people pursuing the right to happiness by securing loans far greater than they can afford for houses and cars far larger and grander than they needed…and as a result hundreds of millions more people suffered around the world.

 

Joy on the other hand seeks us out. Joy is the reconition that perfect love actually values and desires us. There is no work involved to have joy because it comes in relationship to the source of all joy. Joy is the opening of yourself up to the overflowing flood of love that wants you.

 

When you are sad happiness disappears but joy continues unabated like breathing and the beating of heart. When you are in the grip of grief happiness is gone while joy will continue to hold you up – if you have it. Unfortunately too many of us have confused the two and see happiness as joy so that when grief or sadness strikes they pursue happiness in the form of their personal addiction(s) of spending, or drugging or drinking etc.

 

I am rambling now but I think you get the idea. Much more could be said and more eloquently but perhaps another time.