So Just Call Me a Prude and Get It Over With.

Last Sunday morning, I awoke to find my mother watching an extremely popular movie from a few years back. It received multiple awards -- even its fair share of Oscars. Everything that I had ever heard about this movie was that it was basically "God's Gift to American Cinema" and that I was depriving myself by never having seen it. So, I sat down and watched the second half with her.

(By this point you're more than likely wondering which movie it was. However, I thought long and hard about it, and decided not to name it here. What matters here is the point that I'm trying to make -- and I know that if I specified which film I was referencing, I'd lose those people who do, in fact, enjoy it. I don't want to cause derision. I want to relate the lesson I learned, and I think I can do that best by not being specific.)

What I quickly discovered was that it was a very dark movie. For just over two hours, it detailed the decline and collapse of a network of human relationships. Critics have hailed this movie and many like it as sophisticated social satire, yet I couldn't help but see the emptiness of it. These characters were completely devoid of joy -- there was absolutely nothing redeeming about their lives. So, instead, they turned to alternative forms of diversion. Instead of striving to make their lives better, they simply turned to what would distract them from the bleakness of their daily routines as they were.

It made me think. Henry David Thoreau said in Walden, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." And while Thoreau used it in the context of work, I firmly believe that his sentiment can be expanded to all of life. This movie (inversely) proved to me once again the importance of joy. Most people think that the most important thing in life is happiness -- and it ends them up in desperation to find the next "thing" that will make them happy. That's because, no matter how you cut it, happiness is dependent upon circumstances. In fact, happy and happen both come from the same word -- hap, which means fortune or luck. In other words, things in your life have to happen in a way that is pleasing to you in order for you to be happy. However, what is even more important than happiness is joy. And while many people think I'm splitting hairs when I talk about the difference between the two, I must still hold that there is one.

So, what's the difference? Happiness is reactive; joy is proactive. Joy is the realization that contentment is possible regardless of circumstances. Basically, joy is saying, "I refuse to let the ups and downs of life get in the way of my outlook." And to that end, I also firmly believe that true joy is only possible through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It goes hand in hand with faith, because only those who rely on the total working out of God's plan can rejoice without seeing the whole picture. That's where the emptiness of the mere pursuit of happiness shows itself, for a person would have to be in control of every situation he faces in order to be fulfilled by happiness. And if you've ever seen a spoiled child, you know exactly where that line of thinking gets you.

But the best part of true joy is that it's contagious. If you really have joy in your life, you won't want to sit on it -- you'll want to spread it around to every person who has a place in your heart. You'll want them to experience the same contentment that you have found. (And, incidentally, that's another big difference between happiness and joy. Happiness can tend to be rather selfish.) That's yet another reason why sharing the Gospel of Christ is so vitally important. Not only does it change a person's address when he checks out of his "current home," but it also renovates the house he's living in while he's here. It gives people the joy that fills all the emptiness and desperation that they face in life. It allows them to rest in the Lord, rather than desperately searching for the next diversion.