When I pulled my weary frame out of bed this morning to confront another day, I was greeted by a question that stirred my senses and got me riffing like Neil Young “rocking in a free world” at Staples Center. It was, at least for me, a totally new way of looking at the HAPPY/SAD NEXUS in our lives. Here it is:
Why do Christians seem to always feel their SADNESS, but rarely celebrate HAPPINESS?
I am not talking about the “half-full-empty glass” cliché popularized by people who cannot fully explain the depth and dimension of a thought.
I am referring to the BINARY CHOICE believers must make every day to be happy or sad. You know, the daily task of choosing to celebrate happiness or succumb to sadness.
I am NOT talking about the periodic and predictable episodes of profound sadness in life that God uses to grow our faith. No, not that. This is about our normal “go-through-the-day” choice to be happy or sad.
Why is it so difficult to make the day-in-and-day-out choice to be happy?
The short answer is because most of us are chasing, to one degree or another, a MYTHICAL form of happiness. It’s the “when I have this, I will be happy” syndrome.
But if we’re not happy now, we will NEVER be happy later. Why? Because our focus is misplaced on an idealized sense of happiness at a DESTINATION POINT “down the road.”
The obvious and overused example is that we will be happy if we live in a mansion and drive an expensive sports car. No you won’t. I tried it.
God’s holiness is the only gateway to true happiness.
I ask God to help me celebrate happiness and shoo sadness out the door when it makes its predictable visit to my house.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Will you be happy or sad today?
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.” Psalm 40:4
