Happiness vs. Joy

Here is a great entry I read from someone else's blog today and wanted to repost so that I would always have it:

happiness versus joy.

Something that I’ve always thought to be true is that there is a difference between happiness and joy. Most people use those terms interchangeably, and, in fact, it’s quite easy for me to get the two confused (more often than I would like).
To me, happiness is a feeling that is a result of life’s circumstances. For example, being with my loved ones makes me happy. Being on vacation makes me happy. Eating good food makes me happy.


Joy, on the other hand, is a state of being. An attitude. A choice. Having joy often leads to happiness, but not always. In fact, I would argue that one can still experience joy in the midst of life’s trials when happiness is particularly out of sight.

So, how can one experience joy? Do I think that someone can just wake up one morning and decide that they’re going to be joyful? Not exactly. Sure, there are probably some people that choose to be joyful no matter what and say it comes easy to them. Me, on the other hand, I must seek a source of joy. And in my life, that source is my faith in Christ. Without the peace, comfort, hope, and love that comes from my relationship with God, I’d feel so…empty.

My problem is that I seek and find so much happiness in my life that I put my faith (my real source of joy) on the backburner. And 100% of the time, in the end those things that make me happy still don’t complete me. Even that which I hold dearest in life – my family and loved ones – they alone can’t bring me joy. That’s why I feel so blessed to be able to know the true and living God, without whom I’d be completely lost! And also without joy.

I think that to find true joy, you’ve got to dig pretty deep. Sometimes that’s a scary thing to do. Trust me, I know. But I think that in order to live a truly healthy, happy, and full life – that “soul searching” is a very necessary step.