Happiness

Oh, happiness
There is grace
Enough for us and the whole human race...
-David Crowder Band

In Christian circles we throw the word "joy" around a lot. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart. (Where?) "The joy of the Lord is your strength," the Word says. Joy is something that is in the core of you as a human being when you've invited God to be in charge of your life. It's the thing that is missing when you leave Him out of your life. You can even have joy when you aren't actually happy at all! I've seen this happen many times at funerals when you know the person who died is at home with Jesus. Joy is not at all the same thing as happiness.

But what about happiness? Do we have any reason to be happy? Of course we do! How about being saved from eternal separation from God? How about God reconciling us to Himself? How about "grace?" Grace is simply the word we use to describe God's reason for making it possible for human beings to avoid the Hell we deserve and obtain the Heaven we do not deserve. So: if you've accepted Jesus into your heart, you get to go to Heaven, and you didn't do a single thing to deserve it... it's a free gift from God. Doesn't that make you happy?