“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” (John 13:9)

What do you think of when you hear these words:

Happiness?

Pleasure?

Joy?

Are they the same? Do they conjure the same thoughts, feelings, and needs? Of these three, which would you most desire in your life?

The great writer C.S. Lewis wrote time and again about joy. Even his memoir, one of my favorite books, is titled Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. In it, he writes,

Joy must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again … I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is.

When my husband returned from a parish mission trip to Guatemala, several things made impressions on him. He witnessed extreme poverty, a health crisis, and great love for our priest in every town the group visited. What struck Ken most, though, was the joy the people felt. It was tangible and contagious. No matter how poor, how sick, how deprived they were, every person he met was filled with joy which stemmed from their deep faith and appreciation for what they had.

Some years ago, I wrote of the joy of those who work at Castel Gandolfo, the summer home of the Pope. I was amazed not by their happiness, not by their pleasure at being able to guide and assist, but by their sheer joy, a palpable feeling of something we simply cannot sustain here on earth.

Later, I found myself immersed in the sentiment of joy once again as I read the delightful novel, Becoming Mrs. Lewis. While the story is meant to tell the love story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis, what I found the most intriguing were the many ways Lewis found and relished those moments of joy, just as my husband witnessed from the people in the remote mountains of Guatemala.

And it makes me wonder …

Do I truly stop and savor moments of joy?

Do I live each day seeking those moments, those fleeting times we experience something more profound than happiness, more desirable than pleasure, yet more elusive than a ray of sun on a cloudy day?

We all are seeking joy. It is the gift from God which all men and women desire, but it’s not easily found. Often mistaken for other emotions, joy cannot be captured. It cannot be contained. It cannot be sustained in this life. We reach for it, long for it, pray for it because it is the feeling which our souls desire. St Peter describes it as “inexpressible and glorious … the result of your faith [felt by] the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).

The result of your faith [felt by] the salvation of our souls.

Joy is a result of faith.

Only those with true faith can discover true joy.

There is a lot of truth in the saying, “crying tears of joy.” Perhaps we shed “happy tears” now and then, but there is a difference I’m sure you can recognize. The difference lies not in how you feel in your head, but in your heart. Those rare moments when you can honestly say that your soul is bursting with so much joy that tears fall impulsively and beyond control. It’s as if your heart is so full of love, happiness, peace, and all things good that only one word can describe it: JOY. It’s that feeling that your heart is going to leap from your chest in a burst of “inexpressible and glorious” elation.

There are times when I have felt that song of joy in a quick beat of my heart:

Seeing true happiness in someone who has suffered.

Holding a newborn baby for the first time.

Welcoming and being welcomed by a friend you haven’t seen in a long time, making you want to leap into their arms.

Witnessing the sunrise or sunset and recognizing it as a gift from God–a glimpse of the everlasting joy that awaits.

Recognizing those moments when we bring joy to others with our words and actions.

Those are the moments we must remind ourselves to seek and share.

Rejoice in and proclaim that joy when you experience it. When you feel that tug of your heart, that leap of your soul, remember it, cherish it, hold fast to it with the knowledge that it is but a foreshadowing. Pray for the day you feel never-ending joy, the day promised when “everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).

Only those with true faith can experience true joy here and in the life to come.

Copyright 2026 Amy Schisler
Images: copyright 2026 Amy Schisler, all rights reserved.