True Happiness is from within

Most of us judge how happy we are by the good things that come our way. When a cooler of fish from the outer islands comes off the plane, we can't help smiling, and when our boss praises our work in front of the whole team, we walk a little taller for the rest of the week. When we open our post office box and find a slip of paper inside, we go in with a grin to collect our Amazon parcel. These are all gifts, and we should thank God for every one of them, but they all come from outside us, and the good feeling never lasts very long. By the next meeting nobody remembers the praise, the excitement is gone as soon as the parcel is opened, and before long the fish has been eaten and forgotten.

Our joy can be like a Starlink signal: strong under a clear sky and weak when the weather becomes bad. If our happiness depends on outside things, we're happy only when everything goes our way, and we become unhappy and grumpy when things don’t turn out the way we expect.

Joy from a prison cell

The apostle Paul shows us a better way in his letter to the Philippians, which many people call the Epistle of Joy. He wrote it while he was in prison, and he is honest about where he is: "My chains are in Christ" (Philippians 1:13). A Roman soldier guarded him day and night, he couldn't come and go as he pleased, and he didn't know whether he would be set free or put to death. Even so, his short letter is full of joy, and the word rejoice keeps coming up in all four chapters (Chapter 1: Joy in suffering, Chapter 2: Joy in serving, Chapter 3: Joy in believing, and Chapter 4: Joy in giving).

Paul could rejoice in prison because his joy didn't come from what was happening around him, but from Christ living in him. Listen to how he talks about his troubles: "But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel" (Philippians 1:12). Paul was in chains, but nobody could take away the joy God had put in his heart.

Near the end of the letter, Paul shares his secret with us: "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need" (Philippians 4:11-12). Notice that Paul says he had to learn to be content, because it doesn't come overnight. The Lord teaches it to us little by little, and once we have learned it, we can be at peace whether the MEC runs all week or the power cuts out for the whole night.

Two kinds of happiness

It helps to compare two kinds of happiness: the kind that depends on what comes our way, and the kind God puts in our hearts.

• It feels good when the boss praises us, but it means even more to know we've done our work well year after year, even when nobody was watching.
• We're all happy when a cooler of fish comes off the plane from the outer islands, but it takes God's help to stay thankful when Air Marshall Islands cancels the flight.

When a Drupal build runs clean the first time, it makes for a good day, but when the build fails, the site won't load, and a client is waiting for an answer, the person who can stay calm and steady has a joy that goes much deeper. The first kind of joy depends on how the build goes, while the second kind depends on God.

The source that always flows

Paul tells us to do something that only the Lord can make possible: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4). It might seem strange to tell people to rejoice always, but it makes sense when we remember where real joy comes from. It comes from "the Lord," and He never runs dry, so the joy He gives can go with us anywhere, whether that is a prison cell, a hospital ward, or our desk on a Monday when there are errors in the systems we administer, and most things don’t run as we expect.

When we have this kind of joy, peace follows: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). Paul pictures God's peace standing guard over our hearts like a soldier at the door, so we can stay at peace no matter what is going on around us.

Paul adds one more verse that many of us know by heart: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). We often quote it when we face a big challenge, but Paul wrote it about being content whether he had plenty or had nothing, and he tells us that the strength to live like that comes from Christ.

A plain question

So here is a simple question to ask ourselves: when our joy goes up or down, what caused it? If it was something that happened, like our Amazon parcel finally arriving or a power cut ruining our evening, then our happiness still depends on outside things. But if we stay joyful because we're trusting Christ, then we have found the same secret Paul found.

God will keep sending good gifts our way, and we can enjoy every one of them, but our happiness can rest on Jesus Himself, who lives in us and stays with us long after the gifts are gone. Jesus promised His followers exactly this kind of joy: "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11).

Jesus spoke those words to His eleven disciples on the night before the cross. They had shared the Passover meal in the upper room, Judas had already slipped out into the night, and the men around the table were about to watch their whole world fall apart. Right there Jesus told them that He is the true vine and they are the branches, and that a fruitful life comes from abiding in Him (John 15:1-10). He wasn't going to hand them joy like a parcel at the post office, because His joy would stay with them as long as they stayed close to Him.

But this promise was not only for those eleven men, because later that same night Jesus prayed, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word" (John 17:20). That includes every one of us who has come to believe through the message they carried, so the joy He spoke of in the upper room is meant for a believer in Majuro today just as much as it was for Peter and John. When we abide in Christ, His joy lives in us, and no bad day or bad news can take it away.