Every once in a while, in the quiet, stillness of the early morning, I find myself transported back in time. Before my mind begins the work of milling the grain of thought as the day progresses, my personal Way-Back Machine spirits me to points in my past.
One trip, not so very long ago, took me to Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Olmsted, OH. The pastor was a guy named Ward Potts. And, at least to all outward appearance Ward loved God. Even though the church was Lutheran, the Gospel that was preached was clearly Calvinist. If you’ve ever been around evangelical folks, you’ll know what I mean. The 4 Spiritual Flaws and the Roamin’ Road were top of the list evangelism tools.
Anyway, I digress…
What the trip back in time showed me was one particular Sunday when Ward was preaching. During his sermon he made a distinction between “happiness” and “joy.” In his mind happiness was a worldly counterfeit to Joy. Joy is a gift from God. Joy can be experienced even when the world is in a nosedive toward certain disaster. Joy is NOT contingent on circumstance.
Happiness, on the other hand, IS contingent. It’s a feeling that we get when life is going well. When the ice cream’s cold and the coffee’s hot. Warm and fuzzy happiness is a human, (re. ‘worldly’), construct. A counterfeit to the reality of God’s Joy.
The sad thing is, we all said, “Amen”! The concept seemed valid to us. After all, Godliness and worldliness are antagonistic to each other. Antithetical. Diametrically opposed. So, if Joy was from God and happiness was worldly…well, you can see where that’s headed. The net result was that there was a church full of people who were afraid to admit that they were happy. If you’ve never been there, you can’t imagine the existential tap dancing one needs to do to live like that. Joy equals Good; Happiness does not equal Good.
In fact, joy and happiness are fundamentally different. They’re not in opposition to one another. It’s like comparing apples and mangoes. Completely different fruit. Both incredibly delicious.
Fortunately, I escaped that bondage. I wrote in some other place about the beginning of my deconstruction from Fundagelicalism. How, link by link, I have dismantled the chains that bound me to, and within, that world. A world where happiness is suspect. A world where love of neighbor depends on what that neighbor thinks about abortion or LGBTQ+ folks. A world where truth is lies and lies are truth.
Happiness IS a gift from God. It’s not only OK to be happy, it’s GOOD! Even Jesus said so. The Beatitudes in the Gospel According to Matthew are traditionally translated, “Blessed are the Fill in the Blank.” That’s actually a poor translation of the Greek text. The language is better translated, “Happy are you when…”
The Poor, those who mourn, the meek, the peacemakers, all of them are told to Be HAPPY! For God sees the needs of each of them. God will meet them in their need. It’s a time to rejoice and be glad!
So, Ward, wherever you are, you were wrong. Very wrong, indeed. I hope that you have also had an encounter with Yahweh that has revealed the truth.
Happiness is Good!
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