Joy

My experience: happiness flows from judging an event as being in accordance with one’s wishes. Two children are picked for the cross-country running team at school; one is happy because he wanted to be on the team; the other is upset because now he won’t have any free Saturdays. Good or bad is not inherent in the event but is perceived based on judgement, and the happiness (or unhappiness) flows from the judgement. By contrast, joy, when it strikes, bypasses judgement, like waters flooding over the battlements and engulfing the castle. One has no choice in joy; it overwhelms. Happiness resides in the material realm; joy pours down from the supernal realm. Joy obtains even when circumstances do not go my way. Joy is transcendent. Joy, my friend Tom says, is infallible proof of the presence of God.