Are You Happy?

Are you happy? Think about it. Are you? Have you thought to yourself, “God wants me to be happy.” If so then you would be instinctively wrong. The Bible doesn’t talk about us being happy. It does talk about us being joyful, and that joy is what gives us strength, but not happy. Happiness is a fleeting moment in time where things seem to align for a nanosecond before everything hits the fan again. You know, that moment where your child finally obeys the first time you tell them, or your boss smiles at you instead of yells at you. Those feel good moments that we seem to live for, yet rarely achieve.

The funny thing about happiness is that it is so fleeting and yet we attempt to control the circumstances in our lives to make ourselves happy. By the very nature of trying to control the situation, we become less happy than we were before. Control is an ugly monster that when it is fully unleashed, it makes us miserable, and everyone around us wary of us! We can’t manipulate or manufacture happiness. It’s too fleeting; a wisp of smoke, an afternoon breeze, a scent of a rose. As Americans we have become inundated with the idea of goal setting and goal achieving. So much so that we have adopted it almost as a theology instead of a practical application of good work sense. Goal achievement will make you happy. But it is fleeting.

Control is a messed up thing, because we allow it to eat up our own lives, then we turn it on others. We want to begin controlling how their life should be. You see it all the time. You see someone else judging someone for the way they act or respond to a situation, when in all truth we are clueless about what they have gone through. A perfect example is the other day I was talking to my buddy, and he was telling me about John who was a mutual acquaintance of ours. My buddy was telling me about how John was doing all sorts of things that were inappropriate. He went on and on. I finally stopped my buddy and said, “Hey, do you realize that John has had five step dads? All of them abusive. Some verbal, some physical, some sexual? Do you know that John has walked an incredibly long road just to be standing? Do you realize that John doesn’t need someone telling him how to live, he needs someone to show him how to live.”

Our jobs as followers of Christ are not to tell other people how to live. Or to control what they do, but have a relationship with them. Love them, and show them how to live. I know it’s not the easiest way. It’s much easier to stay on our high horses and bark orders than it is to climb down and get dirty. I guess that’s why Jesus spent very little time in the temple and all of his time with the people. Showing not just telling.