Happiness Addiction
September 14, 2008 01:44 PM EDT
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Americans are addicted to happiness. After all, are we not taught to pursue "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?
The problem with this is that happiness is a fickle pursuit. When times are good, we are happy. When times are bad, we are sad. Happiness comes and goes much like the wind, here one day and gone the next.
We search for happiness in many ways. We search for happiness in work, family, friends, material possessions, and in success itself. The problem with this is that happiness is always fleeting because the things we look toward to make us happy are themselves fleeting.
No job is secure. No amount of wealth or material possessions are secure. Aside from that, there is always somebody with a better job and more wealth for us to compare ourselves to. That can diminish our happiness.
Our friends and family cannot make us happy. We may have some fleeting moments of happiness. But there are always problems and issues that come up, stealing our smiles. Still, so many people change husbands or wives as if the next one will be perfect...believing that another person has the ability to bring us that ongoing happiness that we seek.
I don't believe that God intended for us to be happy all of the time. I believe he meant for us to be joyful all the time. Joy comes from within...unlike happiness. Joy is a constant, for it is not affected by those outside influences. It is a quiet contentment that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In Philippians, Chapter 4, Paul has been arrested, is in prison and faces certain death. His circumstances are dire. He has been beaten and tortured. Still, he speaks of being content, saying that he has learned to be content in any situation...whether he has much or little. No matter what his circumstances were...even in a dark, dank prison facing certain death, Paul had learned the constant of his joy and contentment...Jesus Christ.
The love of Christ is not fleeting. His love does not go away with circumstance. His love is not affected by outside influences. If we could learn to depend on Christ rather than our addiction to happiness through money, success, materialism....not to mention all of the other addictions there are in this world...we would learn what Paul learned.
We would learn that joyful contentment lives in Christ, in US...and it is a contentment that is never-ending.
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Comments: 16
Good stuff, Cheryl.
Thanks Cheryl
When our lives are self-centered, we cannot achieve happiness or joy. When we're worried about life's fairness, whether or not anyone is noticing how much we share with them... (this is something so common to us as women), we rob ourselves of the opportunity to find joy in who we are, how we share, and what joy we bring to others.
Because that is the best thing about joy - the easiest way to capture it is to first give it away. :)