I’ve been thinking about joy a lot lately. What exactly is joy and what is the difference between joy and happiness?

When I think about joy, I think about moments in my life that were life-changing. The day I asked Jesus to be the center of my life, my wedding day when I asked Bud to be mine for the rest of our lives, the day my son was born and the day each of my beautiful granddaughters were born. No matter what was going wrong in life, whatever stress was present, all of it fell away during those moments. That’s how I tend to distinguish happiness from joy.

Happiness is fleeting. Something wonderful happens but its effects are not long term. A great meal makes me very happy. A well-acted movie, a wonderfully written book. Those things can bring me happiness in the moment. But my joyful moments stay with me. I can fake happiness. I can manufacture it when needed. But joy comes from somewhere outside myself. It’s more of an attitude than an emotion.

The New Living translation, one of my favorite translations of the Bible, says in James 1:2 “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”

I’ve read this verse so many times in my life and until reading it from that interpretation, I always thought it was an odd notion that James was challenging us with. How could you ever be joyful about being in trouble or stress or pain of any kind? I kept trying to conjure up joy on my own. Putting on a happy face, watching a funny movie, but nothing I did lifted the heaviness. I could laugh for a few minutes but when the movie was over or I was back home alone, the pain and stress was still there.

What James was trying to teach us was this. As we walk with God and learn to trust His ways, His heart and His purposes, we daily begin to see that troubles of any kind are an opportunity to see how God works in our lives. Let me give you an example. We’ve all faced times of need in our lives. It might be financial, physical or emotional. We may find ourselves in need of a financial blessing. Things at the end of the month just didn’t add up; sometimes due to bad choices on our part and other times it was a situation completely out of our control. Or we may feel rejected by someone who we thought could be trusted. A phone call from the doctor confirmed that your health is suffering somehow.

I don’t know about you, I can put on a fake happy face like the best of them and go to work or church and no one would ever know that I’m hurting or in need. I can pretend that all is well and honestly I’ve done that too many times in my life. But that happy face is gone the second I’m away from the crowd.

But when I get alone with Jesus and bring my pain or my need to Him, I don’t have to put on a fake smile. He knows how I feel before I enter His presence and He knows my needs before I ever speak them to Him. Some of you would say if He knows it then why does He allow it? Doesn’t He love you enough to not allow you to have to walk that journey? My answer is simple. He loves me more than I can ever imagine, so much so that He gave His life for me. And as to why He allows me to walk through certain journeys, I believe He does it so that I can see His hand at work in my life. So that I can watch as He does the miraculous. So that I can learn to trust Him with everything in my life.

The truth is, even when we understand what joy is as opposed to happiness, the trouble is still there. Nothing about the situation has changed. But the difference is, I’ve changed. I start to see troubles as an opportunity to watch the miraculous happen. I have a front row seat to watch God’s plan for my life unfold. Yes, yes, yes I want to be in control. That I will admit freely. And more times than I care to admit, I’ve done just that. When I feel like God is not working fast enough or I think I can do a better job then He can. That’s when things get really undone.

And believe me, joy is not my first reaction. Ever! I don’t find myself in the midst of turmoil and immediately become overtaken with joy unspeakable and start spinning around my kitchen shouting “Oh how wonderful! My car needs $842 worth of work! Yahoo! That’s awesome! Glorious Father, Thou art so wonderful to allow this!” Nope. My first reaction is usually, “Aw come on! Seriously??! Where in the world am I going to find that kind of money? Why does this always happen to me?” It takes me a bit before my tirade ends and I realize, as always, that I’m not alone in this situation. God cares about even the insignificant things in my life and He can provide.

There are times, though, when I’m faced with a challenge and I say, “OK God. This is one I can’t do anything about. It’s too much for me. You’re going to have to step in. I will wait with anticipation to see what good You will bring out of this situation.” And I always do. Sometimes the reason for the trial was a chance for me to show love to someone who needed it. Or an opportunity for me to be a blessing to others. I saw that with my health issues that I’ve spoken about here. It was years of pain, sickness and desperation but I saw a side of God I hadn’t seen before. I saw Him as my healer. Then one by one I saw how He used that long journey to be a blessing to others. And that brought me great joy.

What is it that you’re going through right now, dear sister? What trial has blindsided you and brought you to your knees? The first question I would ask you is do you trust God? Do you trust His ways even when you don’t understand them? That’s a hard one but maybe, just maybe He is asking you to stretch your faith just a little further and trust Him a little more. You’ve trusted Him, as a believer, with your life and your salvation. Think about it. Shouldn’t you trust Him with everything else?

I hear people say to find joy in bad situations. I don’t think we have to go out and find joy. Joy has a name and it’s Jesus. He is our joy. We don’t have to go and look for peace. He is our peace. There is no need to search for grace. Jesus is grace. He is love, healing, wisdom, and so much more. There is nothing you’ll ever need that He hasn’t already provided for you.

How do you find joy in the midst of trials? Find Jesus. He’s all you’ll ever need!