Are they the same thing? Is there a real difference? Does it make a difference? I think there is a difference and whether it makes a difference to you or not is your own decision. I think there is a real difference between what joy and happiness is and it is useful to understand the difference.
Let me use another analogy to explain what I believe the difference to be. If you are a parent you no doubt love your child(ren). That is something as a parent I felt from the moment we knew my wife was pregnant. That will never change. I will always love my children. Nothing can take that away. However, occasionally they have not made me happy. I still love them even though I may not be happy with them. See the paradox here? I love them even if at times I don't like them. Love and like are a lot like Joy and happiness. Love is like joy. Like is like happiness. Love and joy stay for a lifetime. Like and happiness come and go, sometimes several times a day.
You can fall out of like with someone. You can't fall out of love. That's why it is important to understand the difference between the two. Some confuse the two as the same when there is a world of difference. They are confused that because they may not like someone today, they have fallen out of love with them. In fact, you can experience deep love for someone even when you don't like what they are doing.
Getting back the the Joy vs. happiness conversation, I think the founding fathers of our country got it right when they described what we have come to refer to as "the American Dream" as "the pursuit of happiness." That is why the American Dream is a hopeless end. Happiness is fleeting, that is why it must be pursued. Know this, it will always outrun you. You may think you have captured happiness when you get that new house, until the roof leaks or the paint peels, then you have to run after happiness again.
Joy on the other hand is a destination. It is a place of being, it doesn't just run off. Even when i am grieving at the loss of a beloved niece, there is a joy in my heart that she is in the presence of the Lord. A real paradox for sure. I don't have to chase after joy, it is a place I choose to live.
Happiness I know will come and go. I enjoy it when it manages to run past me, but when it eventually runs on, I know it will be back. In the meantime I am sustained by joy.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
There Was An Earthquake, Does That Mean Jesus Is Coming?
I hadn't planned to write this blog installment, but thought I might just in case someone fails to get my previous comments in context and I become the newest person to be branded a heretic.
As a pastor, I get questions often after a world-class disaster, Japan being the most recent, if this signals the end of the world. Many people somehow think that because there is an earthquake, a war, a tsunami, something bad, etc., that this somehow signals that Jesus is coming. Well, a little bit yes, but mostly no. Yes, Jesus is coming, no doubt about that. But listen to what Jesus has to say about this:
Matthew 24:6 (NKJV)
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Did you get the last line of that verse? Seems many overlook it. The truth is, there has always been earthquakes and tsunamis and wars and famine and Hitlers and on and on. I am sure in the darkest days of WWII it felt like the end of the world and Hitler was surely the Antichrist. Nope. It wasn't it. My hunch is, Japan is a bad situation, but doesn't necessarily mean it launches the Great Tribulation.
Quite to the contrary, Jesus described the world just before his coming and it looks quite different:
Matthew 24:37-39 (NKJV)
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. [38] For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, [39] and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
It sounds to me like just before the coming of Jesus things are going to be pretty good. Reread all of the parables Jesus told describing his return, they all agree that his servants get lax and lazy because times are easy and it seems "he delays his coming."
Why do we think Jesus is coming when things are bad? Let me assure you, things will get bad AFTER Jesus comes for his church.
Matthew 24:44 (NKJV)
Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
When do we expect Jesus to come? Generally right after the latest tsunami, when the national debt finally implodes and the price of gas is $10 a gallon. I suspect it won't be so.
I am not making light of the situation in Japan. That situation is serious and the Japanese people deserve our prayers and our help. Case in point to have created enough margin in your life to help them out.
I am anticipating Jesus' sudden return, any day, any time. But I do suspect that it won't be an earthquake that makes him come. He'll come when the Father says, "it's time."
As a pastor, I get questions often after a world-class disaster, Japan being the most recent, if this signals the end of the world. Many people somehow think that because there is an earthquake, a war, a tsunami, something bad, etc., that this somehow signals that Jesus is coming. Well, a little bit yes, but mostly no. Yes, Jesus is coming, no doubt about that. But listen to what Jesus has to say about this:
Matthew 24:6 (NKJV)
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Did you get the last line of that verse? Seems many overlook it. The truth is, there has always been earthquakes and tsunamis and wars and famine and Hitlers and on and on. I am sure in the darkest days of WWII it felt like the end of the world and Hitler was surely the Antichrist. Nope. It wasn't it. My hunch is, Japan is a bad situation, but doesn't necessarily mean it launches the Great Tribulation.
Quite to the contrary, Jesus described the world just before his coming and it looks quite different:
Matthew 24:37-39 (NKJV)
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. [38] For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, [39] and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
It sounds to me like just before the coming of Jesus things are going to be pretty good. Reread all of the parables Jesus told describing his return, they all agree that his servants get lax and lazy because times are easy and it seems "he delays his coming."
Why do we think Jesus is coming when things are bad? Let me assure you, things will get bad AFTER Jesus comes for his church.
Matthew 24:44 (NKJV)
Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
When do we expect Jesus to come? Generally right after the latest tsunami, when the national debt finally implodes and the price of gas is $10 a gallon. I suspect it won't be so.
I am not making light of the situation in Japan. That situation is serious and the Japanese people deserve our prayers and our help. Case in point to have created enough margin in your life to help them out.
I am anticipating Jesus' sudden return, any day, any time. But I do suspect that it won't be an earthquake that makes him come. He'll come when the Father says, "it's time."
Creating Margin
I spoke something in my message last Sunday that like so many things spoken in any given message I did not plan to say. It wasn't in my notes and I didn't think of it ahead of time but it just really fit the need at the time and I spoke it. BTW, if you want to hear the whole message look it up on our church website: www.kenainewlife.org
I spoke briefly about the need to create margin in our lives. This week I have heard from several people who each remarked on that one word I never planned to say. I said it because I am amazed at how so many people live on the razor edge of disaster and that in relatively good times. We used to say "living paycheck to paycheck", but that is long obsolete. So many people live "credit card to credit card" anymore. One hiccup in their world and their whole house of(credit)cards comes crashing down, which it was destined to do anyway.
I was speaking about our response to world disaster like recent events in Haiti, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Orleans, Samoa and most recently, Japan. What these events tell us is not that specifically Jesus is coming (don't read me wrong here) just because there was an earthquake but that hiccups or worse, tsunami's happen to us.
Just for the record, download the sermon so you get all of my comments in context.
What we should do in our daily lives is create margin for when the tsunami's of life happen to us, we have some capacity to absorb them and to help others.
Margin applies to every area of our lives. If you live "stressed out" all the time you need to create some emotional margin. If you live credit card to credit card, you need to create financial margin. If you are lonely and isolated, you need to create some relational margin.
Margin is what we prepare in advance of our tsunami's that allows us to survive when a wall of disaster threatens to overwhelm us and the people around us. Thankfully we do not get tsunamis every day of our lives. So if we prepare NOW, ahead of time, when it eventually does come, it doesn't have to devastate us.
Margin is created by living well within your means, by developing deep relationships with other Christians, by keeping your family together in loving relationships, by spending time alone in prayer and scripture with Jesus. I think you get the idea.
I am NOT saying to hoard food, gold, bullets or the like against the end of the world. That all is useless anyway. But have some depth in your life in as many areas as you can identify so that when the time comes, you have the extra capacity to absorb the situation and be a beacon of hope and help to others.
I spoke briefly about the need to create margin in our lives. This week I have heard from several people who each remarked on that one word I never planned to say. I said it because I am amazed at how so many people live on the razor edge of disaster and that in relatively good times. We used to say "living paycheck to paycheck", but that is long obsolete. So many people live "credit card to credit card" anymore. One hiccup in their world and their whole house of(credit)cards comes crashing down, which it was destined to do anyway.
I was speaking about our response to world disaster like recent events in Haiti, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Orleans, Samoa and most recently, Japan. What these events tell us is not that specifically Jesus is coming (don't read me wrong here) just because there was an earthquake but that hiccups or worse, tsunami's happen to us.
Just for the record, download the sermon so you get all of my comments in context.
What we should do in our daily lives is create margin for when the tsunami's of life happen to us, we have some capacity to absorb them and to help others.
Margin applies to every area of our lives. If you live "stressed out" all the time you need to create some emotional margin. If you live credit card to credit card, you need to create financial margin. If you are lonely and isolated, you need to create some relational margin.
Margin is what we prepare in advance of our tsunami's that allows us to survive when a wall of disaster threatens to overwhelm us and the people around us. Thankfully we do not get tsunamis every day of our lives. So if we prepare NOW, ahead of time, when it eventually does come, it doesn't have to devastate us.
Margin is created by living well within your means, by developing deep relationships with other Christians, by keeping your family together in loving relationships, by spending time alone in prayer and scripture with Jesus. I think you get the idea.
I am NOT saying to hoard food, gold, bullets or the like against the end of the world. That all is useless anyway. But have some depth in your life in as many areas as you can identify so that when the time comes, you have the extra capacity to absorb the situation and be a beacon of hope and help to others.
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