Happiness

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

 As an early Christian (and certainly before) I wasn't always a very "happy" person. I was very moody - some would say depressive - and I had no problem letting my face show it. If someone had quoted the above verse to me I probably would have muttered an expletive under my breath.

Most of you probably have heard a sermon on, or are familiar with the concept of "joy" versus "happiness". We are usually told that "joy" is something within that is constant and not necessarily expressed outwardly, as opposed to "happiness" which is a fleeting feeling expressed by our face, etc. 

I would agree with this observation, but I would also suggest to you that "joy" and "happiness" are one in the same, and the problem is in our idea, as well as source, of happiness. 

I just did a word search for "rejoice" in the Bible (New American Standard Version), and I was surprised to find many entries in the book of Deuteronomy, all of which were expressed in the form of a command to "rejoice" over God's provision.  I then looked up the Hebrew definition of the word to make sure I wasn't missing something, but the word literally means "to be brighten up", or "to be cheerful". Now I don't know if you can draw a distinction between "cheerfulness" and "happiness", but I can't. The Greek word for "rejoice" has pretty much the same meaning, as does both the Hebrew and Greek word for "blessed", and scripture tells us it is a perennial state we are supposed to be in.

Therefore we are to be happy all the time. This is where our society-defined concept of "happiness" has missed the mark, I believe. It's more than just a feeling, or something our facial muscles are doing. We don't need to sport a ridiculous smile on our face all the time: anyone can do that (although we certainly aren't to be walking around frowning all the time!*). Our happiness comes from within rather than circumstances, and the source of it is none other than God himself. 

Therefore if God's command to us is to "rejoice", happiness is more of a choice we make than a specific feeling. I wish I had known this when I was a depressed Christian. Instead I just became passive and waited for something or someone to lift me out of it. This is not the scriptural way to happiness. The scriptural way is found in Romans 15:13: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Happiness was just around the corner, I just needed to look up. 

Looking "within" for happiness, as the world tells us, is just a "rabbit hole" of concentric circles where we just get more and more wrapped up in ourselves. But when we look up to God the source of happiness, He will fill us with joy and peace, and the ability to pass that happiness on to others. 

* like a "racoon sucking on a lemon" my former pastor used to say