Like most people, I enjoy being happy. Among some of the top things that make me happy are kind words from others, spending time with friends, giving and receiving gifts, and corny jokes. I am happiest when these things seem to gel together and everything seems to be under my control. Unfortunately, happiness is kind of like a game of Jenga; suspense and elation build as yet another wooden piece is pulled from the bottom and placed on top until the structure is unstable and topples in a crashing, heaping mess. No matter how many levels you construct and how many personal records you accumulate (the highest recorded tower is currently 40 2/3 levels, by the way), the end result is always the same: your creation will topple.
This is the problem with my self-maintained happiness. Sure, it’s fun for a while, seeing how much happiness I can sustain from the same building blocks just slightly rearranged, but eventually it comes to a crashing end and I am left feeling hollow and dissatisfied.
In contrast to this game of happiness stands joy—the “confident assurance of God’s love and work in our lives” (taken from my NLT Study Bible). Joy extends beyond individual blocks of circumstances to a firm foundation like that of a house. Knowing that no matter what may happen in my life, Christ is in control of every minute detail, and that gives me the freedom to experience true Joy. I don’t have to wonder when my joy will give out and come crashing down because my joy in Christ is solid, as long as I cling to Him and not to my blocks of happiness.
I know this next semester will be filled with trials and
disappointments, but God holds my life in His hands, and I want to rest in that
assurance and experience that Joy.
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