I have heard people ask this question before. I’ve even heard people say “just do what makes you happy”. Recently, I heard someone say “God would just want you to be happy”. The last comment really got me thinking. Does God really care about our happiness? I guess before I tell you what I think about this, I’ll have to go back to the “beginning” and explain some things about my own life.
When I was 11 years old, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was an “accidental” diagnosis, found only because she was testing out a new machine at the doctor’s office that she worked at. It all happened so fast, none of us really even had time to think about what was going on. One day she was trying out a machine, and the next day she was undergoing a radical mastectomy.
The memories I have after that are very blurry. I remember she went through chemo and radiation, which was really hard on her. Then there was a period of time where she was “cancer-free”. During that time, I watched my mom live her life to the fullest. She shared her testimony with everyone she came across who would listen. She spoke of a powerful God who healed, who loved, who never failed her.
Then, a few years later, she found out the cancer had returned, this time with a vengeance. Again she went through chemo and radiation. Unfortunately, a lot of my memories after that are again blurred and mostly sad. I remember her being sick – a lot. Amazingly, through it all, she somehow remained positive. She always believed God was going to heal her again, just like He did before. She found scriptures in the Bible that she held on to and claimed with everything in her. Jeremiah 29:11 was her favorite. It says: “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” She remained steadfast in her faith, but the cancer was winning. It wasn’t going away…in fact, it was spreading. But STILL…she held to the promises that God was going to heal her, that He was going to remain faithful. I never remember her doubting. Maybe she did, but she never let me see her doubt. I remember her finding JOY in the little things. It was a type of joy that was unexplainable, given her situation.
Sadly, she lost her battle and went to be with Jesus in 1998, one month after I turned 17. Many years have gone by and I’ve had a lot of time to think about how she lived her life. The memories I have about her as a mother are nothing short of amazing. The thing that stands out the most to me in the midst of all of her suffering was the JOY she had. Not happiness….JOY. What is the difference you may be asking? Well, I did some research, and here is what I found. There is actually a difference between happiness and joy.
| Happiness: | Joy: |
| External sources: Events, Feelings | Inward sources: Contentment |
| Momentary | Long-lasting |
The difference is, happiness is something you find in your circumstances, and given my mom’s circumstances, she had nothing to be HAPPY about. But joy, real God-given JOY, comes from within, and does not depend on our circumstances.
There were many things she could have chosen to dwell on that were not the least bit happy. The fact that she knew she wasn’t going to be around to see me graduate, or get married, or have children, wasn’t HAPPY by any means…..but somehow, through it all, her relationship with Jesus gave her inner JOY.
Something my mom left to me was her journal. She only wrote in it for a brief time, but in it, I found some amazing inspiration. While I would never share her private thoughts with anyone, I feel like there is one thing she would want me to share with others, and that is this. She wrote:
“I guess this is too much to take in, but I feel a peace. I’m concerned about Amy and what she must be thinking and feeling. Verses like 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 have really come alive to me in times like these.”
I will post that scripture at the end of this blog for you to read. It’s pretty amazing to read that scripture and know that was one of the things she was clinging onto, that was giving her the JOY she had deep down inside, when everything around her was NOT happy.
So to answer the question, “Does God care about our happiness?” I would have to say that happiness is fleeting. It comes and it goes. What God does “care about” and promises us is JOY. Real, unexplainable JOY. Things in our lives aren’t always going to be happy. Sometimes God is going to ask us to do things that make us uncomfortable. Things aren’t always going to be easy, and at times we may even suffer, but if we stay close to Him, we can be confident in knowing He will never leave us or fail us. If we can remember that the life we are living is just temporary, THEN and only then, will we know what true JOY is.
Please take a moment to read the verses my mom wrote about in her journal:
2 Corinthians 4:7-18 says:
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. 13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
