The whole idea of the consistency of joyfulness has been something that's been popping up in my life a ton within the past few weeks. From a few different podcasts and a Younglife club talk - God has used these things to remind me that even though happiness is circumstantial and comes from the world around us the joy that is found in a relationship with Him is consistent in all circumstances. The most interesting reminder that the Lord has chosen to give me in these difficult few weeks actually came in the form of an interview I had to conduct for a Sociology paper.
Our prompt was to conduct an interview with an individual of 65 years or older and ask them a few questions that have been used in research about aging and happiness to better understand the social factors that can affect us throughout our lives (Abramson 2015, Fernandez 2017). Our professor provided us with a list of questions to that would allow us to link the conversation to our course concepts. I gave my interviewee (that I'll be referring to as John Doe) the opportunity to preview the questions prior to our discussion so that he would have time to mull over his answers. After all, when you're asking someone to recount key emotional moments in their life it's best to allow them to get into the space to discuss these comfortably.
The majority of the questions throughout the course of the interview are along the lines of: What was the happiest moment of your life? What would you have changed to be happier? How do you define being happy? When I called John to begin the interview, he explained to me that he had something he wanted to say before we started that he felt would be a good way to preface his answers to the questions that followed. John explained to me that "to many people the most important thing is to be happy but that can be fleeting. I remember a sermon that talks about happiness and how it relates to the happenings in our lives. As a Christ follower, our focus should be joy. You may not be happy due to circumstance but in the midst of this you must be joyful. You can be joyful in The Lord when things are bad due to your trust in His plan. Joy can be a constant companion whereas happiness is fleeting".
Joy can be a constant companion. The Lord really used John to bring me such a beautiful reminder of the joy that is found in Him, His love and His plan and the entire time all I was focused on was getting information down to write a paper. I think it's so important to be watchful for the ways that The Lord reveals His character to you on a daily basis through the most mundane things. My point in writing about his experience is to challenge you to reassess what your definition of happiness is. Where have you rooted yourself emotionally? Are you relying on the world to fill you every time your empty or are your eyes upwardly placed on the one who calls us to rejoice in all circumstances?
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit
Romans 15:13
