Are We Supposed To Look For Happiness In Life

Over the weekend I went to a wedding, it was like most wedding I have attended or had the pleasure to be a part of, beautiful.  It was a joyful occasion and as always the bride was beaming with happiness.  As I listened the toast and words of wisdom handed out, I couldn’t help but notice how many times it was mentioned that they made each other happy, don’t worry I am not about to say how that is a bad thing.  I’m glad to hear that they make each other happy, but it made me think about being happy is that something we should strive for in life.  I have always come under fire for my thoughts on being happy I’m just going to put that out there so you understand I may say something you disagree with and I am ok with that.  I have never been of the belief that being happy is all that important, I have moments in life where I am happy, I have moments where I am not happy.  But I have never felt that I need to go out of my way to be happy.  I have found that the statement “do whatever makes you happy” somewhat of a dangers statement to make to someone.  We don’t really know what makes someone happy, maybe its sitting on the couch watching football, or maybe it going out to a fight club, if that is the case they can’t tell you.  We all know that the first rule of fight is you can’t talk about it. 

I have always thought of being happy more of an emotion more than anything it is a set of circumstances that makes one happy.   The problem is people want to be happy all the time, this is unrealistic it just isn’t going to happen.  Some will say doesn’t God want you to be happy? I could answer this with a simple yes or no but that would not do either of us any good.  Let’s think about this for just a second, we live in a broken world.  What I mean by broken is that we live in a world that was created without sin and then sin was brought into this world and broke it.  Because of sin we have murder, lies, hurtful words, death, you get the picture.  The question of if God wants us to be happy is not important for us in the world we live in.  Why? Because in a broken world their only fleeting moments of happiness, but we can find joy in God’s word.  In John 15:9-12 we read; “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.”  You may be saying wait a second isn’t joy and happiness the same thing?  No they are not, have you ever said to someone “you have no idea how joy I am to see you”?   No because joy is not happy you cannot replace the one for the other. 

I believe that we need to strive for joy in our lives not happiness, again I have nothing against being happy.  But joy is something that is stronger the happiness, with joy comes hope.   Joy is much deeper than circumstances, it stays with us during the tough times and the happy times.  If we are to live our lives here on earth, which we are, we don’t have choice, then we are never going to really find happiness, but we are going to be able to find joy that is deep and pierces our hearts.  As I said in the beginning you may not agree with me on this and that is okay with me.  I don’t always agree with everything I read, but I hope that this is challenging you in how you think about happiness and joy.