One Christmas carol that keeps on ringing in my head goes, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive its king.” The lyrics of one of the top 20 Christmas carols were written by Isaac Watts, inspired by Psalm 98.
Sometimes it’s difficult to feel the spirit of the season because we focus on the wrong things. We look for an abundance of food, abundance of gifts, abundance of friends. We are probably blinded by all the glitter that we forget the reason for the season, as a priest said in his homily.
It’s also difficult when you are confronted with a calamity, either as victim or witness. Many forego their parties or gift-giving to channel their energies and resources to helping the victims like those of the recent typhoon Sendong.
These thoughts bring me to the debate on the difference between joy and happiness.
Everybody wants to be happy. Yet we are often told that happiness is fleeting and temporary. While happiness is possible, the word itself points to something happening for you to feel that way. When you are doing great, you are happy. If you are in dire straits, you are not. Happiness then is connected to fame and fortune.
On the other hand, joy is more of a state of faith and confidence that everything is well despite your life circumstances because of God’s great love for you. Let me share what I have read in www.studyjesus.com:
In Philippians 3:1 Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” The Lord is both the source and object of joy. Knowing Him brings joy that transcends temporal circumstances. Obeying Him brings peace and assurance.
Paul’s gratitude illustrates that Christian joy is enhanced in our lives by our ability to recall the goodness of others. A corollary is our ability to forgive shortcomings and unkindnesses. This goes against the grain of today’s “don’t get mad — get even” society, but is perfectly consistent with the compassion and forgiveness God has shown us. Therefore, be quick to forgive evil and slow to forget good.
Joy is God’s gift to every believer. It is the fruit that His Spirit produces within you (Galatians 5:22) from the moment you receive the Gospel (John 15:11). This joy increases as you study and obey God’s Word (1 John 1:4).
Even severe trials need not rob you of your joy. James 1:2 says you should be joyful when you encounter various trials because trials produce spiritual endurance and maturity. They also prove that your faith is genuine, and a proven faith is the source of great joy (1 Peter 1:6-8).
Joyful songs make healthy hearts
The University of Maryland School of Medicine conducted a study on how music selected by the participants themselves can provide a sense of joy.
Results showed that when the participants listened to their chosen music, the tissue in the inner lining of their blood vessels dilated, increasing blood flow. When they listened to music, which they found stressful, their blood vessels became narrower, restricting blood flow.
Ten healthy, non-smoking volunteers went through four phases. Phase one had the participants listen to music which they had chosen. Phase two made them listen to stressful music. Phase three had them listening to relaxing audio tapes. Phase four involved watching funny videos.
“We had previously demonstrated that positive emotions, such as laughter, were good for vascular health. So, a logical question was whether other emotions, such as those evoked by music, have a similar effect. We knew that individual people would react differently to different types of music, so in this study, we enabled participants to select music based on their likes and dislikes,” says Michael Miller, MD, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The Maryland study showed that music had a higher positive health benefit than laughter and relaxation. “The relaxation tape brought about an 11-percent increase in dilation; for the laughter video, the increase in dilation was 19 percent; joyful music, however, was able to bring about a 26-percent increase in blood vessel dilation. On the other hand, stressful music narrowed blood vessels by six percent,” Dr. Miller shares.
“I was impressed with the highly significant differences both before and after listening to joyful music as well as between joyful and anxious music. The active listening to music evokes such raw positive emotions, likely in part due to the release of endorphins, part of that mind-heart connection that we yearn to learn so much more about. Needless to say, these results were music to my ears because they signal another preventive strategy that we may incorporate in our daily lives to promote heart health,” adds Dr Miller.
Did it enter your mind that the key to a state of joy is in the word itself? JOY can stand for Jesus, Others, You. If we put Jesus in the center of our lives, then we live in faith that we are in His loving care. If we put Others before ourselves, then we will not focus on ourselves and our needs. We will become selfless rather than selfish.
May JOY be yours this season and always!
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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.