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Am I happy in God?
When I read this question the first thing that comes to my mind is, “What’s the alternative?” If we do not find our happiness in God, where do we find it? I think the usual answer is that we look for happiness in the circumstances of our life. I know that I do.
Most of us understand happiness as an emotion or a feeling that is dependent on how life is at any particular moment. We can be happy one day and not so happy another. It all depends on how things are going. Think about it. Most of us correlate happiness with things going well in life. Happiness is a product of enjoying your job, being in a good place with relationships, not being overly stressed, having some amount of financial stability, or being in good health. When life is generally going well, we are happy. In other words, happiness is dependent on the circumstances of our life. This seems to make sense. But it also reveals a problem. If happiness is dependent on the circumstances of life, then it is an unstable feeling. As soon as we experience challenge, disappointment, tragedy, or hardship, we no longer are happy. We find that happiness is fleeting.
But Scripture talks about a different kind of happiness, one that isn’t dependent on the circumstances of our life. In his Letter to the Philippians, Paul writes, “Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad!” (4:4).
How in the world are we supposed to be glad always? Rejoice always? Be happy all the time? Is Paul just being unrealistic here, or naive? No, neither of these. In fact, if you dig in a little, what you find is that Paul actually wrote this letter during a low point in his life. Imprisoned and awaiting trial, Paul wrote this letter during a time of significant suffering and personal challenge. Paul was not unfamiliar with hardship, and he certainly wasn’t asking us to pretend like everything is OK even when it is not.
Instead, Paul is encouraging us to shift our understanding of happiness, to change what we base our happiness on, or what we put our hope in. When we put our hope in the circumstances of our life, we will endlessly be trying to control and stabilize the forces of our life in a futile pursuit to “find happiness.” It usually doesn’t work, and even if we happen to find that perfect balance where everything in our life is working out, it doesn’t last long. Jobs are lost, relationships go through turmoil, illness hits, and the unexpected befalls us. Putting our hope for happiness in circumstances is a recipe for never finding it and being frustrated in the process.
Instead, Paul encourages us to put our hope for happiness not in circumstances of our life but in the power of God. This kind of happiness (often distinguished as joy) is found in something deeper, more significant, more stable, and indeed eternal. This is the kind of happiness that cannot be taken away by a bad day or ruined by life’s challenges. This is the kind of happiness that allows us to be sad, to feel disappointment, to get angry, and to suffer life’s inevitable hardships still knowing that God has not abandoned or left us. This is a joy that comes not in everything going well all the time, but in the deep belief that God will walk through every dark period with us and will see us through to the other side. This is a happiness that cannot be shaken or taken away, because God is not shaken, and God’s work to bring about good in our lives cannot be thwarted. As the Resurrection shows us, even death itself cannot defeat us or define our future.
This Christmas season, ask yourself, “Where am I looking for happiness?” Is your happiness dependent on the perfect Christmas dinner or family members all getting along? Is it rooted in a certain feeling that you hope to give or a certain gift you hope to receive? Is it based on details working out just the way you want and your expectations of others being met? If it is, then Christmas is bound to disappoint. But instead, this Christmas I invite you to remember that our happiness and joy don’t come from life’s circumstances, which will be great one day and not so great another. Rather, our circumstances come from a God who is coming to dwell with us, to walk beside us, to never leave us, and to work for the ultimate good in our lives and in the life of the world.
Rev. Matt Miofsky