Joy vs Happiness

  Joy vs Happiness

Last week I wrote about Joy In The Journey.  That blog applies when we are going through a difficult time, a time when happiness seems far away.  A time when life seems dark, when we are going through a valley.  In our case right now a time of grieving.  There is a difference between joy and happiness.  We can’t always have happiness but we can always have Joy.   The Joy of the Lord is in our hearts.  It’s there when we think of the wonderful life we enjoyed with Roderick, it’s there when we see our family drawing together and choosing to go through this together, it’s there when our friends cry with us and come to visit us and share their wonderful memories of Roderick, it’s there because we realize we don’t have to go through this alone, it’s there when the Lord sends a sweet dream about Roderick, it’s there all the time, it doesn’t leave.  When the darkness is so thick you can feel it the joy shines a bright light on our path, when we have more questions then answers the joy shines onto the statements that we know to be true, God loves us, comforts us, and is grieving with us; when we cry uncontrollably the joy shines through our tears.  Yes the Joy of the Lord is truly our strength. 

   Happiness on the other hand is a different thing.  When asked how we are doing, we don’t answer, “We are so happy right now”.  No it’s difficult.  We’re not happy that we are separated from Roderick.  We are not happy that our house feels so empty.  We’re not happy that we have to ask for a table for four instead of five when we go out to eat, it doesn’t seem right.  There are so many adjustments to make that don’t seem right, it doesn’t make us happy.  We will be happy again even though right now it's still a bit difficult to be happy.  I will confess that until it happens. 

   I came across a face book page yesterday for moms who have lost children.  I don’t mean to be judgmental or mean but I decided that page was not for me.  I don’t know if I grieve differently then most moms or if I’m just not on this journey long enough and am just so ignorant but I found it discouraging.  There were moms who said their child had left 20 years ago and it was just getting harder all the time or eight years ago or five years ago.  I read only one comment that sounded encouraging.  No we will be happy again, in fact, I believe we are doing Roderick wrong if we cannot again be happy.  He would want that for us, he is happy where he is at and he lived a happy life here on earth, he would never want us to be stuck in sadness forever or until we get to go to heaven.

   So while we walk through this valley of grief, of sadness, we can’t say that we are happy.  I don’t think you can be sad and happy at the same time but we will climb out of this valley of sadness and again find a field of happiness and while we climb, the joy of the Lord is always with us giving us strength to keep climbing.

   2017 we will watch the Lord make something beautiful out of tragedy.