Finding Happiness

Since 2012 the UN has released an annual World Happiness Report. The 2023 Report ranked the United States at number 15 with a score of 6.894 out of a possible 10. Finland ranked first with a score of 7.804.  Not surprisingly, Ukraine ranked 92^nd and Russia ranked 70^th. 

Perhaps the best-known quote in American history is Jefferson's three inalienable rights: “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Not happiness, but the pursuit of happiness. Are we happy?  Are we pursuing the right things that can make us happy?

 

Following the pandemic, it appears that many are seeking happiness in crowds: football, basketball, baseball, hockey. Once empty stadiums are packed.  Concert venues are filled to overflowing.  We want to celebrate almost anything.  We want to celebrate together.

 

Commercials give us clues about our “pursuit” of happiness.  For many, happiness seems to be bound up with possessions: to own something better than somebody else whether houses, cars or clothes; our bodies: to be more beautiful, stronger, more attractive; sex: whether casual and illicit or friends with benefits; drugs (including alcohol):  whatever promises release from our inhibitions and escape from our problems; social media and technology: virtual reality, virtual friends and a virtual life.  With all their promises for happiness, these often lead to disappointment and, too often, disaster.

 

There is another way.  The Bible says, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.  How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. … Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that He may see good?  Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.  Depart from evil and do good; desire peace and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:8-14)  “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:3).

 

No one is happy all the time. Jesus was characterized as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”  But there is a joy that goes deeper than happiness; a joy that sustains us even in our difficulties.  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-3).

 

Churches are often the happiest places on earth.  I have visited hundreds of them in most states and many countries.  Wherever I go, the gatherings of believers is characterized by joy, acceptance, encouragement, heartfelt hugs, laughter, smiles and love.  The people of God have within them this unquenchable joy that sustains them, even when times are tough.

 

This joy is the result of God’s redemption in Jesus Christ.  Our sins have been forgiven. Jesus has been raised from the dead.  As Isaiah predicted, “And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads.  They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”  (Isaiah 35:10).

Digital Faith

 I am a digital immigrant. I was born into a world of rotary dial telephones and slide rules, cash registers that resembled slot machines, schools without air conditioning, encyclopedias that occupied an entire shelf in the book case and paper maps that unfolded to fill the front seat of the car.  

 I started my immigration to the digital world about 40 years ago when I walked into Toys R Us with sweaty palms and bought my first computer, a Commodore 64.  It had 64k of memory and a floppy disk, used machine language and gave you time to get a cup of coffee while loading a program. You can still find Commodore 64s in a few attics, basements and museums.

 My oldest son is also a digital immigrant, though he was only eight years old when he started his digital journey.  After he grew up, he started his own computer support company and now manages an IT team for in an energy company in Wyoming.

 My grandchildren are digital natives.  They were born into the digital world and have never known anything else.  My younger grandchildren were playing computer games by the time they were four. At 12, 10 and 6 they each have their own iPad.    

 I like the digital world.  I would not want to go back.  I live with my iPhone and PC. I can browse the web and check email anywhere in the world.  I have conducted business and managed my bank accounts from Nuremburg and Tel Aviv. I felt a little sacrilegious when I started reading my Bible on my iPhone and my Kindle.  It seemed like it wasn’t really a Bible if I couldn’t flip the pages and smell the ink. I had to remind myself that the first Scriptures were handwritten on scrolls and that books came centuries later. 

 But there are dangers in the digital world that did not exist before.

 The world of virtual reality can undermine relationships in the real world robbing us of time, energy and emotional maturity.  More than one career has been destroyed by inappropriate posts on Facebook and Twitter. Pornography is at your fingertips.

 It is not unusual to see several people sitting at a table, each focused on their smart phone, none of them speaking to one another. Craig Detweiler writes in his book, iGods, “The iMac begat the IPhone and the iPad, and each one starts with me – or rather “i.” They enhance our ability to connect and to serve, but they can also create an inflated sense of self, believing the entire world revolves around “me.” … In an age of status updates, personalized shopping, and lists of followers, we are experiencing the rush of becoming iGods of our own making.”  All this sounds strangely like the first temptation, “When you eat of it you will be like God.” (Genesis 3:5).

 Our challenge is to incorporate the timeless and eternal truths that never change into our digital world with a digital faith that connects us with God and with one another.  The greatest commandment remains:  “Love God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Senior Citizen

 I am a “senior citizen.” I have been for some time.  How did this happen?  I never intended to become one. I spent my life busy about making a living, raising kids, pursuing career goals, trying to serve God and others and then, I woke up and I was a “senior citizen.”

 This was never my goal.  I never looked down the corridors of time and wished that someday I could become a senior citizen. It happened without my knowing.  I was assigned the title without my consent.

 The first indicator was a card in the mail from AARP.  I did not ask for this.  It just came, about the time I turned 50.  And then I received advertisements from the Neptune Society encouraging me to think about cremation. I don’t want to think about having my body burned, stuffed in a jar or  thrown to the wind.  I want to think about living.

 Part of it is my own fault.  I have sold out my pride for a few cents and asked for a “senior coffee,” a “senior menu,” or a “senior discount.”  Do I have no shame?

  Little things remind me I am aging.  When I purchase a plane ticket on the computer, I have to page down four times to find my birth year.  When I check out at Walmart, the cashier calls me “Sweetie.”  When I go to the barber the floor is littered with white hair clippings.

 We discipline ourselves in our youth so that we will live a longer life. But, when we live long, we discover that it leads to “old age.”  What is this?  I want my youth back.  I want to run and feel the exhilaration of running; to get out of bed without aching, to fly up the stairs two at a time, and to run down them without a thought and without a limp.  I want to eat whatever I want without gaining weight.

 But, if we are successful and live long lives, old age will come. Someone, somewhere said, “Growing old isn’t for sissies!”

 At age 79, Thomas Jefferson lamented about growing old to his friend John Adams, “It is at most but the life of a cabbage, ... when all our faculties have left, or are leaving us, one by one, sight, hearing, memory, ... friends of our youth are all gone, and a generation is risen around us whom we know not,” (Monticello, June 1, 1822). 

 And yet, we discover treasures that we did not expect.  Our children find their way and establish successful careers. Grandchildren giggle and squeal and leap into our arms.  Retirement brings freedom to live where we want, think what we want and do what we want. Friendships grow deep and nourish our souls like the roots of a tree.

 And, the experience of God’s love grows deeper: “You who have been borne by Me from birth and have been carried from the womb; even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you” (Isaiah 46:3-4)

Resurrection Faith

 I was 29 years old when my father died of multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow.  He was 53.  Only hours before his death, I spoke with him.  Our eyes met during that final visit, the same eye contact we had shared from my birth, though his eyes were growing gray.  I held his hand as he drew his last breath, and then, he was gone.  His body lay lifeless and unresponsive.

 The morticians took his body from the hospital room where our family had waited through the night.  We visited the funeral home and chose a casket.  Shortly afterward other family and friends joined us to view his body lying still and quiet, dressed in his familiar suit, his hair combed.  I stood by the casket and stared at his face.  It was obvious another hand had combed his hair and another hand had tied his tie.  He seemed to be sleeping.

 I imagined him drawing breath. Imagined him opening his eyes so that they sparkled once again, his lips parting in the familiar grin, the dimples reappearing in his cheeks.  But he didn’t move. We buried his body in the cemetery surrounded by friends who came to comfort us. 

I asked myself the question Job asked centuries ago, the question every man and woman must ultimately ask when they stand where I stood on that day, “If a man die, shall he live again?”(Job 14:14).

 Job’s struggle with the question was not about theology or philosophy.  His struggle was like mine.  It was personal.  It is the struggle we all must face sooner or later when those whom we love die. 

 After having pondered the question, Job foresaw the Easter event we celebrate this weekend.  He wrote, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27).

 The world will ponder Job’s question this weekend when we gather in Christian churches around the world. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the answer to life’s most important question became clear.  Luke wrote, “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3).  Paul wrote, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

Bill's novel, We Beheld Hi Glory is FREE as an eBook on Amazon April 4-5.  Join the 12 in their journey with Jesus.