Commonly, people use the term "Scrooge" towards someone who is acting, or just is, odious.
See, in the book, Scrooge is portrayed as a miserable, morbid, and mean-spirited man. But why?
He was rich, accomplished, & educated. Were there anything he wanted, he could have. Certainly, he could buy his heart's desires. But what could someone, who has everything, have anything to be so tenaciously morose about?
While the author never comes out & simply says Scrooge's problem was that of having no joy, we see from what he does say about Scrooge & Scrooge's actions.
Scrooge had no joy or happiness.
Dickens tells us that Scrooge was not just unpleasant inwardly, but that even his outward appearance was influential by this.
"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice..."
While joy & happiness seemed void in Scrooge's life, I think he was happy being unhappy or joyless. He put his faith, hope, & trust in his wealth & fortune. His money held his belief & assurance.
I think Dickens saw this in people, and put it on paper.
Contrary to most people, joy & happiness are different. While both are great & a blessing, they are not the same.
Happiness is defined by Webster as fortune & good luck. I.E- Getting a good grade, winning a bet, making a good purchase, etc. Material things make for happiness, while joy, on the other hand, is comprised of the more meaningful things in our lives- friends & family, falling in love, fond memories, etc.
Looking at this, we see that happiness is based & dependent on circumstance, while joy is existent in spite of whatever is going down.
However, as humans, we blur the lines of joy & happiness.
The relationships & people & other things that bring us joy, often take the place of God & GIVE us joy. In other words, we don't know how to be joyous without them, forgetting all about God.
This is called the Priority Pitfall.
We are blessed with possessions, relationships, success, & more, that we find joy & happiness from those things(again, not wrong), but when we find ourselves without those things that gave us joy & happiness, we might lose all joy & happiness. God didn't intend it to be this way, but as humans we screwed up His groove. God had designed it that we find our joy from Him, that we don't NEED the other things He blesses us with, to get joy. That even if we lose those things, we find comfort & joy that we still have Him.
People prefer proof rather than faith. The known to the unknown. The tangible. Happiness to joy.
People tend to put their assurance into things that are in the now, tangible, visible, etc. I'm not saying it's not bad to have pleasure & happiness from these, don't get me wrong. People, myself included, just oftentimes get our priorities jumbled.
The things God places in our lives only become the Enemy's tool, when we take the things He blesses us with as means of giving us joy & happiness, when they become our sole generator for joy, taking the place of God.
When our joy is taken away by the Enemy, the Scrooge effect comes in & callouses us & makes us hardhearted. Then God has to break that, by sending a wake-up call.
(pun intended)
This simple equation is the secret to true joy & happiness.
God is Joy.
Joy=God.
God=Joy.
So as we remember this concept, we can look at Mr. Scrooge & see what happens when we apply it-
"Many laughed to see this alteration in him, but he let them laugh & little heeded them, for he knew no good thing in this world ever happened, at which some did not have their fill of laughter. His own heart laughed & that was quite enough for him..."
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