Many of us, if not all, have the desire to be happy. Who wouldn’t want to be happy? However, the question is, when can we say that we are happy? How can we say that we are already happy? What or who makes us happy? What then can make people happy? According to an online dictionary, Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. WOW! What an intense definition! I can feel the adrenalin rush its definition is saying about the word itself. Is this the main reason why we are in pursuit of it? For adrenalin rush? Or we don’t know either why are we in pursuit of it?
Some people find happiness and excitement when they find new gadgets. This is so true with guys that even if they become old, they still leave a child heart in them through the devices that they play with from Nintendo to PSP to PSP2 to PSP3 to what else? See, I don’t even know what’s next! Boys will always be boys. Some people find happiness in shopping. Oh yeah! Women are most likely the ones who find happiness in doing this. They even say that shopping is a form of exercise. What an expensive activity! No matter how much time they will put to waste, no matter how long the lines are in a mall sale, women will show strength in standing and brushing the alleys and walkways just to get their favorite items. Some people find happiness in reading books. According to a certain online article, it says “Reading is the best thing we can do for ourselves and each other. Readers are active participants in the world around Not only does it enrich our lives, but it can enrich the world around us. Readers are active participants in the world around them, and that is the best kind of person to be." It’s like books are their phenylephylamine that is the same hormone the brain triggers when you fall in love. They find serenity, pleasure and happiness rolled in one when they read books.
Some find happiness in relationships. People often say “I love him/her for he/she completes me.” LOL! How can someone complete another one? I once told a friend what if he/she completes that emptiness in you but you don’t in him/her, how can they say that they are complete? Should they find it elsewhere? This is very dangerous that people often find themselves broken hearted and alone in the end. Some people find happiness in money for money can buy all the things that were mentioned just few sentences ago. If you noticed in the aforementioned sources of happiness, these are just material things that some people may find very shallow. DISCLAIMER: I am not saying that these people are shallow but I am really curious, what makes somebody say that they are happy?
These things shall pass one way or another but what lasts is the feeling that it brought to one person – happiness. This is something that cannot be taken away from us but how would you know that it is real happiness that they felt? The last example I mentioned is money. Indeed, money can buy anything these days that made people say that it is the root of all evil. Who does not want money? We all want it but possession of it is not evil. God allowed men to come up with the idea of having money to be used for trade, payment and the like but is that really the root of all evil? As mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” It is the LOVE FOR MONEY that causes the evil in us. God also told us to “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” [Hebrews 13:5] Living a modest and simple life does not mean that we do not want nor should not have money but God simply asks us to be free from the love of money for He knows that it will not do us no good. Everything that we have (work, money, et. al.) came from God and He gave these as gifts to fulfill our needs. He said “Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.” [Ecclesiastes 5:19] That gift brings happiness in us.
Let’s check another one – relationships. People say that they are happy for they have found their better half and that someone completes them. What if you started at the wrong foot? Just recently, one of my friends became single because her boyfriend of six years is now the boyfriend of her best bud in the office. This woman once said to me that she loves this man and that he makes her happy. She perhaps felt that she is complete with his existence in her life. Maybe or maybe not for I did not bother to ask the question but is it really happiness? I know that she is happy but her face does not show this at all for it is said in the Scripture that “A happy heart makes the face cheerful…” [Proverbs 15:13a]. Why do I feel like she is not? Is she just faking it or is just proving a point that people cannot bring her down? On the other end of the story is her friend who also has the other half of the verse and it says: “…but heartache crushes the spirit.” [Proverbs 15:13b]. Though her spirit was not crushed, I can see in her face that she has a broken heart. On the other hand, people tend to put their partners in pedestal like god for they do nothing without them; they are nothing without them; they are just nothing. This is what God does not want to happen for He is a jealous God. [Exodus 20:5a] So where is happiness?
What if our happiness is threatened by outside forces in the form of trials and challenges? Can this feeling of happiness get through it alone? Can happiness alone withstand the pain of suffering, life’s trials and challenges? It is true that it’s hard to stand in a non-sturdy ground that makes you second guess yourselves. God wants us to finish the race strong with happiness in our hearts for it is said in James 1:2 – 4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” This is God’s promise that we should find happiness in everything that we do and perhaps, what we have for one day, we will be under the storm and God wants us to be successful in overcoming these trials by finding happiness in it.
Again, where’s happiness? It can only be found in the hearts of those who have God and who allows God to maneuver their lives. Being human is not easy because we wrestle the truth that God is the only One who can make things work for us. The sustainable joy and happiness can only be found in GOD. And it was said: “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” [Ecclesiastes 7:14] So am I happy in spite and despite of the fact that good and bad things can happen to me? YES for God will never leave nor forsake me. I hope you are too.
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