Hey Dad, Let's Talk 2| The Pursuit of Happiness |
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I personally don't think absolute happiness is even possible in this world. Yet everywhere you look, unhappy people are desperately seeking it, all the while sacrificing loved ones, friends and themselves in the pursuit. Perhaps we're searching for the wrong thing - a false god. What if instead of pursuing happiness, we pursued Christ; and with Him, the peace, joy and contentment that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit? I suffered from an anxiety disorder for 18 years and depression was its cousin companion. In the past year, God has shown me the need to be proactive in my quest for healing, and consequently, I've made quite a few lifestyle changes that should have been made long ago. I've been passive far too long, you see. Reading things I shouldn't, watching things I shouldn't, indulging negative thinking patterns, and then begging God to take away my heartache. In short, subjecting myself to much unnecessary suffering and robbing myself of peace by my own doing. Interestingly, Romans 16:19b-20b says, "be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Having too much knowledge of evil can give the devil a strong foothold. Being a melancholy personality, I know we've a tendency to not only be pessimistic, but to actually seek out pessimistic things to feed it. We overlook the good side of melancholy, like helping the poor and being sensitive to the needs of others; and instead focus on the bad side, the self-flagellating side. Like, choosing a tear-jerker film over a comedy, selecting a tragic novel rather than a cozy mystery, reading miserable and disturbing news articles, obsessing over this or that, overanalyzing everything and everyone, false guilt, etc. The list goes on and on. And then we get ourselves into a rut of self-absorption and wonder why we're so unhappy all the time. This can easily lead to abject selfishness if left unchecked. And any personality-type can succumb to the same rut, reached by any number of pathways. That is, hoping to find happiness around the next corner by telling yourself as soon as this happens or that, I'll finally be happy. But here's what I've learned: The pursuit of happiness is often nothing more than discontentment. We tend to assume contentment and happiness are synonymous because if you substitute the word content for happy, you can change my sentence to "as soon as this happens or that, I'll finally be content" and it seems to mean the same thing. But I don't think it is. I think we can learn to be content and thankful even during times of great trial and tribulation, when temporal happiness is out of the question. Consider what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:11-13: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." It's doubtful that the Apostle Paul felt happy while he was being beaten or thrown in prison or shipwrecked or starving, but what he did have was joy and peace, even during great suffering. After all, he was the one who said, "in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness' " (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). It has been said that "what happy people know is you don't always get to be happy" and I think that hits the nail on the head. In conclusion, here's a thought-provoking excerpt from The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis: "The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home." RELATED ARTICLES: One Whole Winter to Go, Fast-Forwarding Your Life
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One person has commented on this article.  1. MomSusan Smith, Unregistered Hi Rebecca, Good thoughts there. I've spent most of my life thinking about happiness and contentment. We live in a world caught up in the pursuit of all the wrong things. But it's because we know there is something more, that something is missing. We lost perfection in the garden and we've been looking for it ever since.  Posted 2011-05-05 19:42:37 |
How many people spend their whole lives searching for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - that ever elusive happiness we all long for yet seldom find?