Happy, Happy, Happy

I'm borrowing from John Eldredge again.  I get emails from him and he often speaks to things that are on my mind and on my heart.  This is one of those emails.

I have people tell me from time to time, "you deserve to be happy" and it's something that just doesn't sit well with me.  For me, happiness is a fleeting thing.  I'm happy one moment, not so happy the next.  I'm happy and a problem pops, I'm happy and someone does something to me that hurts, one minute I'm happy and then I'm not so happy for a multitude of reasons.  Happiness comes quickly and it goes quickly.  Sometimes life is hard and it beats me down and if happiness is what I really seek, I'll be miserable.

As Good as It Gets?

If for all practical purposes we believe that this life is our best shot at happiness, if this is as good as it gets, we will live as desperate, demanding, and eventually despairing men and women. We will place on this world a burden it was never intended to bear. We will try to find a way to sneak back into the Garden and when that fails, as it always does, our heart fails as well. If truth be told, most of us live as though this life is our only hope.

In his wonderful book The Eclipse of Heaven, A. J. Conyers put it quite simply: "We live in a world no longer under heaven." All the crises of the human soul flow from there. All our addictions and depressions, the rage that simmers just beneath the surface of our Christian facade, and the deadness that characterizes so much of our lives has a common root: We think this is as good as it gets. Take away the hope of arrival and our journey becomes the Battan death march. The best human life is unspeakably sad. Even if we manage to escape some of the bigger tragedies (and few of us do), life rarely matches our expectations. When we do get a taste of what we really long for, it never lasts. Every vacation eventually comes to an end. Friends move away. Our careers don't quite pan out. Sadly, we feel guilty about our disappointment, as though we ought to be more grateful.

Of course we're disappointed-we're made for so much more. "He has also set eternity in the hearts" (Eccl. 3:11). Our longing for heaven whispers to us in our disappointments and screams through our agony. "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy," C. S. Lewis wrote, "the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

(The Sacred Romance , 179-80)

I know the people who tell me I deserve to be happy mean well and I don't set out to give them my outlook on things (because they'd likely think I'm loonier than they already do) and I appreciate their concern for me.  That said, I've also got some other friends who share their hopes for me in this way: Seek God.  Seek his favor.  Seek the peace that comes only from Him.  Seek joy from knowing Jesus' love.  Seek comfort from being a child of God.  Seek God.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I know today, more than ever, that seeking God and his ways for my life will lead me to something greater, more fulfilling, than happiness ever could.

Grace and peace to you.