Joy and Happiness

Recently, I have come across the passage in James that talks about considering it joy when you face trials of many kinds. When I first read it a few years back, I began to question how one could possibly find joy in a situation that would be considered a trial. Of course, there are some trials that I would consider better than others, but I still wouldn't think that I would experience joys in those situations. One of the things that I learned in college from several people was that joy and happiness are not the same thing. Yes, I know, simple truth, but for me, it was difficult to grasp. After thinking about this verse and my newly developed comprehension of the difference between joy and happiness, I realized that I can have joy in situations that are not the greatest. This passage is not telling me that I have to be extremely happy and overwhelmed with happiness. But, I can be joyful in the fact that I am a child of God that can experience trials and suffer for His name. Will I be happy? Probably not. The pain that we may experience is not something that we would exhibit happiness over. It is okay not to like whatever we are going through, but it is still possible for us to experience some sort of joy.