Confession: I like to play with Duolingo. Yeah, I know it’s not the best way to learn a language, but it stimulates my brain. Currently, I am learning German, Italian, French, and Spanish (by far, the one with which I am experiencing the most success). And after talking with my in-laws last night, I’m kicking around the idea of adding Norwegian to the list.
Anyway, the Italian word for “happy” is “contenta” (or contento - masculine and feminine, you know). Obviously this connects to the English word, content.
People get bucky when it comes to the two words, happy and joy. There is an insistence that joy is superior and reflects true contentment. The justification is that joy is a long-term state of being, not completely dependent on circumstance.
This is true, but it doesn’t mean that happy is a sloppy second. Yes, happy may be fleeting and superficial, but it doesn’t have to be. It would seem the Italians agree. What’s so bad about being happy? Stack up enough happy and eventually, joy and happy are holding hands, in a relationship.
Currently, I read six books - the Bible, three devotionals, and two “inner improvement” books. This morning, by some divine synthesis, they seemed to be sending the same message:
The happiest (most contented, for those who dislike the word, happy) people are those who can say, “This isn’t what I planned, this isn’t what I wanted/expected, and/or this isn’t the timeline I anticipated, but I am content to know that it’s playing out this way because there is something better out there for me.”
It is believing and truly knowing (not outwardly, but inwardly) that God is aware of it all, has allowed me to pass through this gate for reasons known only by Him (for the time being), and is rubbing His Divine hands together in glee as He winks and says, “Wait for it. . . “
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