Are You Happy?


Are you happy?

I think it is a legitimate question in a country where "happiness" is often pursued with an all consuming zeal.

  • We buy a new house and fill our garages with "toys" - thinking that will make us happy.
  • We train for a new job thinking maybe that is what will finally do it.
  • We trade in our partners thinking the NEXT one will be "THE one."
  • We spend millions of dollars feeding the entertainment and sports industries looking for an hour or two of "happiness"
  • We go to the gyms, and get botox and "lifts", new boobs and genders - thinking one of those changes MIGHT make us happy.
But IF after doing any one of these things - we say that we're "happy," that happiness typically only lasts a little while and then we're off in search of the next thing.

What I've found is:  HAPPY is different than JOYFUL - and if you are looking for happiness, you are looking for the WRONG thing.

Take a look at the picture above.  That is Maggie on the left, and Caroline on the right.  They are roommates living in a small house on a dirt road in Chinandega, Nicaragua.  Maggie is a nurse, and Caroline is an engineer.  

Both of them work for Amigos for Christ.  And when I saw this picture I was struck by the fact that both of them are RADIATING PURE JOY

In Nicaragua these girls don't even have access to a lot of the "THINGS" we in America think will make us happy - and yet there they are.  Beautiful.  Happy.  JOYFUL!

If you asked them, maybe they'd tell you their smiles were because they were preparing a good meal or spending time with friends - but if you ask me, I think their joy stems from the fact that both of them have laid down their lives here in America, electing instead to give fully of themselves - loving and serving others in a land where life is not always easy or convenient - but instead often difficult and hard. 

They do not appear to be suffering.  

Maybe if you have been searching for happiness, it is time to pursue joy instead.

"As the father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this:  Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one's life for one's friends." - John 15:9-13












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Petition for Prayers

Image
Hi there - today is my 400th post and I am wrestling a bit... so I'm asking for your prayers. I started this blog o ver a year ago, convinced it was something God wanted me to do.  It was way out of my comfort zone, and certainly not something I’d have done 10 years before, but  I had hoped that i n some way, it might help people get closer to Him. I knew that once I had finally given my life to God, EVERYTHING in my life changed, and  I desperately wanted people to experience the same JOY and PEACE I have felt since making that decision.   As they say, “I was like a poor beggar telling others where they could find food”. For months, the posts flowed easily and I would feel the Holy Spirit's inspiration…the words on the page practically writing themselves.  However, I'm not sure that is still the case.  Sometimes I feel as if I am struggling to hear His voice, and I honestly don't want to be writing MY thoughts - I want to be sharing HIS. So, I'm going to t...
Read more

The Journey to the Cross (Day 4 - THE LADDER)

Image
In the city of Jerusalem stands a church called  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.   It has been proposed as the place of both the death and resurrection of Jesus, and it has been a place for pilgrimages since the 4th century. Considered holy, the site is cared for by no less than six denominations including Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac Orthodox.  As such, it has been carefully parsed out into sections.  And sadly, arguments and violent clashes are not uncommon. Jim visited the church once on a trip with Northridge and told me about "The Immovable Ladder".  Apparently the ladder is a " bizzare outcome of religious stubbornness pushed to extremes. " For " Sometime in the first half of the 18th century, someone placed a ladder up against the wall of the church. No one is sure who he was, or more importantly, to which sect he belonged.  The ladder remains there to this day.  No one dares touch it, l...
Read more

The Journey to the Cross (Day 3 - ONLY JESUS)

Image
Today’s Holy Week post has me thinking about the 12 disciples. ONLY JESUS Can you name Jesus' 12 disciples?  If you've been watching The Chosen or reading your Bible regularly, you might be able to.  However - there are some, who - at least for me, are a bit in the shadows. Sure I know Simon/Peter, and his brother Andrew .  And then there was James and John, the sons of Thunder (or Zebedee to be exact).  There was Matthew, and Thomas, and Judas Iscariot.  And there was Simon the Zealot, and another James...but...but...a nd here is where my mind isn't as good at remembering.   So I Googled it. There was also Philip - a Jewish man from Bethsaida who apparently was the one to tell Nathaniel (another lesser known disciple) that "The One" Moses and the prophets had foretold in the Old Testament, was here.  Following Jesus' death Philip became a missionary in Greece and for his outspoken faith proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God - Philip was stoned and...
Read more