Compassing the Pursuit of Happiness
In our relationship with God we are to give him his legal right—namely, all that we have and are. The Christian is to be as a matter of course totally dedicated to God (Rom 12:1-2) and filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). For his part God gives to us positionally, as we are in Christ, forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7), eternal life (Rom 6:23), adoption as sons (Gal 4:5), and the availability of unlimited help and power (Eph 1:18-19). Think of how much that means! Moreover, he gives to us experientally, as we are Spirit-filled, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindess, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). When this relationship is intact, the product in our lives will be righteousness (Rom 6:16),and the by-product of righteousness is happiness. Happiness is an elusive thing and will never be found when pursued directly; but it springs into being as one pursues the knowledge of God and his righteousness is realized in us.- William Lane Craig (emphasis added)
To call happiness "elusive" is an understatement of the highest order. Human beings have searched for that evanescent "meaning of life" seemingly for as long as we've existed, and we're inevitably left seeking. All of us look for happiness in different places, things or people, but the pursuit is almost always fruitless. We each have our own idea regarding what we need to be happy and, along with those, laundry lists of complaints about why we're not: we've lost a loved one, been diagnosed with an illness, been the target of slander, lost our job, suffered betrayal at the hands of a friend, been the target of ridicule, been rejected by a member of the opposite sex or don't have enough money to live comfortably. Even in the rare case that we do get exactly what we were hoping for, we soon realize that the proverbial grass is greener somewhere else, and our futile quest begins anew with some higher expectation. Is it because we are simply unsatisfied (and ungrateful) by nature, or is the explanation a pragmatic one: we're never satisfied because we're ever striving toward something better? Or could the reason be that we're searching for the wrong things? More than 1600 years ago, the great theologian Augustine began his autobiography, The Confessions, by addressing God: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." So many of us have made this discovery for ourselves, yet our hearts remain restless even after we have finally found God.
Our discontent lingers because there are always those things that happen in the course of our lives which threaten the serenity we've found. But, have you ever considered that the things about which we're often so worried probably matter very little in God's eyes? God sees the only real cause for concern: we have all sinned and need to be reconciled with Him. It's not that God doesn't care when we are in pain—perish the thought, for Scripture tells us repeatedly that He shares our pain—but He sees that the genuine source of our greatest pain is not the circumstances we find ourselves in, but the fact that we are separated from God. And once we have been reconciled with Him by accepting the freely offered gift of salvation through grace and Christ's atoning sacrifice, that problem has been remedied. Indeed, the miraculous works of Jesus Christ exhibit that the primary source of healing comes from righting that communion. Certainly, Jesus didn't pass by those who were suffering without healing them, for God's compassion is limitless. "Which is easier," asked Jesus, "to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?" Author Philip Yancey observes, "Jesus never met a disease he could not cure, a birth defect he could not reverse, a demon he could not exorcise. But he did meet skeptics that he could not convince." That skepticism keeps us distant, because we need faith to be saved. Jesus pitied the people he met because of their afflictions, but moreso he was concerned about their failure to recognize the true source of their pain, and what they truly need.
So, the question becomes: do we define happiness in the short-term, by things that offer a fleeting feeling of wholeness? Or can we overcome our own inevitably myopic perspective and consider the long-term, realizing that this life itself is fleeting and that eternal life should be our goal? In Christ, we have all that we need. It is my sincere hope that we never forget that, and never allow that axiom to be reduced to a mere platitude. No matter what else comes our way, may we take not only joy but confident assurance in that knowledge, lest we become like Peter when he walked out on the water toward Jesus, then discovered himself sinking when he let the troubles of the world distract his focus (take heart, too, though, that Jesus will reach out and catch us—just as he took hold of Peter's hand—when we allow ourselves to become similarly discouraged). Finally, may we rejoice not only in the hope we have in the Lord but also in all of our sufferings, because suffering grants us the opportunity to grow (Romans 5:2-5, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Our discontent lingers because there are always those things that happen in the course of our lives which threaten the serenity we've found. But, have you ever considered that the things about which we're often so worried probably matter very little in God's eyes? God sees the only real cause for concern: we have all sinned and need to be reconciled with Him. It's not that God doesn't care when we are in pain—perish the thought, for Scripture tells us repeatedly that He shares our pain—but He sees that the genuine source of our greatest pain is not the circumstances we find ourselves in, but the fact that we are separated from God. And once we have been reconciled with Him by accepting the freely offered gift of salvation through grace and Christ's atoning sacrifice, that problem has been remedied. Indeed, the miraculous works of Jesus Christ exhibit that the primary source of healing comes from righting that communion. Certainly, Jesus didn't pass by those who were suffering without healing them, for God's compassion is limitless. "Which is easier," asked Jesus, "to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?" Author Philip Yancey observes, "Jesus never met a disease he could not cure, a birth defect he could not reverse, a demon he could not exorcise. But he did meet skeptics that he could not convince." That skepticism keeps us distant, because we need faith to be saved. Jesus pitied the people he met because of their afflictions, but moreso he was concerned about their failure to recognize the true source of their pain, and what they truly need.
So, the question becomes: do we define happiness in the short-term, by things that offer a fleeting feeling of wholeness? Or can we overcome our own inevitably myopic perspective and consider the long-term, realizing that this life itself is fleeting and that eternal life should be our goal? In Christ, we have all that we need. It is my sincere hope that we never forget that, and never allow that axiom to be reduced to a mere platitude. No matter what else comes our way, may we take not only joy but confident assurance in that knowledge, lest we become like Peter when he walked out on the water toward Jesus, then discovered himself sinking when he let the troubles of the world distract his focus (take heart, too, though, that Jesus will reach out and catch us—just as he took hold of Peter's hand—when we allow ourselves to become similarly discouraged). Finally, may we rejoice not only in the hope we have in the Lord but also in all of our sufferings, because suffering grants us the opportunity to grow (Romans 5:2-5, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised him from the dead."- Ephesians 1:18-20
