Happiness

Today I read an article a mother wrote about ten things she wants her daughter to know before she turns ten. Actually, it was good for anyone of any age to know.  A link to that article is at the bottom of this note. The first thing was that “it is not your job to keep the people you love happy.” That is so true.

It’s not my job to make others happy. When I work to make or keep others happy, I most often am trying to second guess what their desires might be, and meet those desires even before they are expressed. I don’t allow for a genuine exchange of ideas or expression of their own hopes and dreams.

It’s not even my job to make myself happy. I find when I do things out of an attempt to be happy, I end up concentrating on the wrong things. I am further away from a true centered life. It’s kind of like when Paul says, “I don’t know what I’m doing, because I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do the thing that I hate.” [Rom 7:15] What a wretched way to live.

And it certainly is not God’s job to make me happy. There’s an awful lot of schlocky quasi-theological thoughts out there indicating that God’s blessings are in the form of giving me things or experiences that enhance my life, give me what I want, and make me happy. More often I find that God’s blessings call me out of myself, even make me at least a bit uncomfortable. It’s when I wrestle with these blessings that I am so centered in God’s presence that it doesn’t matter to me whether I am happy or not.

The best and most honest thing I can do towards happiness, mine and others, is to pray for God’s mercy, and let God work out how that mercy will flow.

Matthew 5:8-9

"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.” [The Message]

Article on Ten Things.