Episode Summary:

In honor of International Happiness Day, join me as I sit down with Rev. Jessica Van Roekel to explore what it really means to count it all joy. As we reflect on personal experiences and biblical examples, we’ll highlight the distinction between circumstantial happiness and the deep, steadfast joy that comes from trusting God through trials.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how joy can be a deliberate response to life’s challenges, cultivating faith and steadfastness. Whether you’re navigating hardship or seeking a renewed perspective, this conversation offers hope and encouragement to find joy in every circumstance.

International Day of Happiness aims to make people around the world realize the importance of happiness within their lives. This day encourages people to spread happiness through a small action. But what happens when actions don’t cut it, and the feeling of happiness lasts mere seconds? What do we do when the idea of happiness seems far off and impossible?

Quotables from the episode:

• I liken joy and happiness, the difference between that is that a river usually has a source. And A river can get filled up with mud and leaves and twigs and even beavers come along and build dams and so further on down the little stream, it's just dried up, rocky, dry bed. But if you follow that stream, you eventually come to the source and the source is where it just bubbles out. And that's how I liken happiness and joy is that joy is the source. My relationship with the Lord is my source of really life. It's my source of source of strength. It's my source of everything. The breath that I breathe comes from God and that is my joy. So, I can have these circumstances like postpartum where it felt like continue on with the analogy that streambed dried up. It's like the depression built this dam between the feelings of happiness and yet that joy, the source was still bubbling and still there.
• From a neuroscience perspective, happiness and joy engage the brain in distinct but overlapping ways. Both emotions activate reward systems in the brain, but their triggers, durations, and neural pathways differ significantly.
• Happiness is often a fleeting emotional state triggered by external stimuli or achievements, like eating a favorite meal, receiving a compliment, or reaching a goal.
• The brain's happiness response is typically short-lived, subsiding once the rewarding experience ends or the novelty wears off.
• Joy is a deeper, more enduring emotional state that often arises from intrinsic sources, such as gratitude, faith, or connection with others. Unlike happiness, it does not rely solely on external circumstances.
• Joy is more sustainable than happiness because it is less tied to transient external factors and more rooted in internal states like faith, gratitude, and meaningful relationships.
• Happiness primarily relies on external stimuli and rewards, triggering immediate but temporary dopamine release
• Joy emerges from internal processes and deeper reflections, engaging serotonin pathways and regions involved in emotional and existential meaning.
• Happiness is short-term, as the brain’s reward circuitry adapts quickly to pleasurable stimuli (a phenomenon called hedonic adaptation).
• Joy is longer-lasting, supported by neural circuits linked to emotional regulation, contentment, and resilience.
• Happiness can be disrupted by stress, as the brain's focus shifts to managing perceived threats.
• Joy can coexist with stress, as it often stems from a sense of purpose or faith that provides emotional resilience during trials.
• Happiness happens to us while joy happens within us—fruit of the Spirit, a choice, endures hardships/sufferings.
• Happiness is a reaction but joy is a practice and a behavior, deliberate and intentional.
• In the Bible, happiness appears less than 30 times but joy appears hundreds of times.
• Counting it all joy when we face trials means we:
  • experience God’s strength,
  • feel the power of faith,
  • hang on God’s powerful arm,
  • and witness God’s work.
• When we “count it all joy” God proves himself faithful to produce steadfastness in our hearts.

Scripture References:

• James 1:2-4, ESV “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
• Esther 8:16, NIV