happiness

Getting What You Want

/ JJS / Leave a comment

happiness_want

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 65; 147:1-11, 1 Samuel 12:1-6 (7-15) 16-25, Acts 8:14-25, Luke 23:1-12

The musical Wicked is a study in contradictions. The Wicked Witch is a misunderstood outcast whose best intentions are used against her. Glinda the Good Witch has charm that hides her manipulative and ambitious nature. As in real life, no character is completely good or evil, but a complicated mix of motives and circumstance. As the second act opens, Glinda has gotten the boy and the fame she hoped for, but at the cost of her dear friend who has been slandered as wicked. As she celebrates her good fortune she also begins to realize it may be the very thing unraveling her happiness. She sings: “Because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true. Well, isn’t it?”

The people of Israel got the king they wanted when God appointed Saul. Yet, Samuel warned them, it was not what God wanted for them. If they or their king rebelled against their Lord, that Lord would turn against them. Once we get what we’ve asked for, we have to live with it … which can turn out to be more complicated and less satisfying than we’d anticipated. And if we’ve really pushed for it – alienating God, friends, or family in the process – we have few options left.

Centuries later the people of Israel got a different kind of king in the person of Jesus, and they didn’t want him. For a while they loved him, but when it became dangerous they turned on him. The authorities arrested him, mocked him, and twisted his words and teachings to convict him. Eventually Jesus just stopped answering questions; no matter what he said, it would be used to condemn him. Maybe that’s a sign that we’ve hardened our hearts too firmly toward what we want (or don’t want): we can’t even hear conflicting opinions.

Life constantly teaches us the differences among what we want, what we should want, and what we need. While we chase our dreams, let’s not trample the blessings we already have. As the Psalmist says, “We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.”

Additional Reading:
For more about today’s passage from Acts, see Money For Nothing.

Comfort: True happiness lies in seeking the Lord.

Challenge: Pray regularly about your goals and dreams to discern whether they are right for you; pray also to be grateful for what you have now.

Prayer: Thank you, generous Lord, for providing for my needs.

Discussion: How do you know whether you’re making a sacrifice to follow the right dream, or being stubborn and following the wrong one?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Solid Ground

/ JJS / Leave a comment

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 41, 52; Joshua 7:1-13; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 26:36-46

Our modern understanding of happiness – as in “life, liberty and the pursuit of” – is a fairly new concept. American culture equates happiness with gratification, pleasure, or pleasantness and portrays it as a normative state. The happiness our culture tells us we should pursue is in truth impossible to sustain, so we feel failure or even guilt because we aren’t happy all the time. We are uncomfortable with grief, anger, or any emotion standing in the way of happiness. Our impulse is to muscle our way through difficult emotions – to manage them rather than feel them.

The Hebrew root of “happy” as it’s used in Psalm 41 (“Happy are those who consider the poor”) is also used for blessed, fortunate, place, step, and fate. Happiness in the Psalms refers to a condition of right relationship with God – regardless of our emotional state. “Satisfied” isn’t quite as… satisfying a word as “happy,” but it is more accurate. Satisfaction is independent of emotion. If happiness is a breathtaking sunset, satisfaction is the ground under our feet: we don’t notice it most of the time, but if it starts to crumble beneath us, we realize the sunset is merely a pleasant distraction. Because happiness is comparatively intense, we think of satisfaction as a lesser state, when it is actually foundational.

When Jesus in Gethsemane prays for suffering to pass him by, is he what we would call happy? How about when he realizes his friends can’t stay awake with him? Or when he accepts God’s desires above his own? Jesus shows us that feeling good is not as important as doing what is right. In the core of his being, Christ is happy as the Psalms describe it.

Some people go to the opposite extreme of happiness, and seek out suffering to please God. While we must be willing to suffer in the name of love and solidarity with Christ, such manufactured piety is unhealthy. Being in right relationship with God comprises both rewards and difficulties, and the transient emotions accompanying them are like sunsets and rain. We need solid ground to enjoy or endure.

Comfort: We are created for more than happiness, we are created for relationship with God!

Challenge: When you get a chance, watch a nature documentary. As you watch, reflect on the struggles and rewards that are part of the natural order.

Prayer: God of all Creation, above all things I seek right relationship with you. Amen.

Discussion: During what experiences have you suffered, yet been at peace?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!