As you can imagine, if you read my short and snotty sweet post yesterday, I spent the entire day on the sofa with a box of Kleenex and hot tea. There was TV watching ad nauseum, book reading, and Internet cruising, the last of which found me watching Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” video. I can’t imagine that you haven’t seen it, or at least heard the song, but just in case, here it is:

Catchy, isn’t it? I’d heard it before, of course, but someone had posted it on Facebook, and I clicked on it to listen again. One thing I’d never noticed, however, is the website posted at the end of the video:  24hoursofhappy.com. Curious, I clicked over. It’s a 24 hour continuous loop of other people’s videos to that song; their own take on the “happy” movement, that Williams has apparently put in motion with the United Nations Foundation for an “International Day of Happiness.”

The Youtube video that I clicked on had received over 129 million hits. The 24 hour site had received 8 million in the last 30 days.

That’s a lot of people looking for some happy.

I love to feel happy. I bet you do, too. But, the thing is, being happy isn’t what’s going to get you through. Happiness is temporary, fleeting, and based on circumstances, yet we often seem to think if we could just find someone to make us happy, or a job that would make us happy, or you fill in the blank, everything in our lives would finally fall into place.

However, it doesn’t, does it?

Even if we find one of those things, it won’t make us happy forever, because our circumstances change.

But then there’s joy. Joy is not dependent on circumstances. Joy is found in hope. Hope if found in something solid and sure, unchanging and full of promise. In my experience, there is only one thing that fits that description completely.

Christ.

If you’ve found Him, you’ve got everything you need. No matter how rough and chaotic the circumstances, He’s there, behind you, beside you, and before you, to guide you through. He is your hope, and there’s incredible joy in that.

Enough to make you dance.

Happy in this moment, yes…but filled with joy, forever.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 NLT