From the Pastor: The Quest for Happiness
On my way to an early morning church meeting, realizing I was 20 minutes early, I pulled off the traffic-jammed El Camino Real, found a place to park on a side street, and turned off the engine. I then sat back to think of the busyness of the day ahead of me.
Suddenly, a man about 35 years old burst out of the front door of his small house on the other side of the street, with his two little sons, like little ducklings, trailing after him. All three were laughing and playing together.
The man appeared to be on his way to work and was obviously in a hurry, probably to catch a bus, since I saw no car. Still, he stopped and picked up his children, gave them both a big kiss and then set them down again. They giggled in delight. He turned and continued, but they wouldn’t give up and ran after him. He stopped a second time, scooped them up in his arms one at a time, gave them another little twirl, a few more kisses, and set them down again. The boys were now laughing hysterically. The father had the biggest smile on his face—a face radiating pure joy.
It was apparent that he had little materially. The home was tiny and relatively rundown, but still well-kept. I’m sure he had plenty of problems to face each day, but the simple happiness I saw that morning was far more than anything I witnessed the rest of the day as pastor of a wealthy church in a desirable neighborhood.
Following my tedious meeting, I returned to work among some of the most prosperous and comfortable people in the San Francisco Bay Area. But nowhere did I witness the joy I had seen earlier that morning. Now many other things happened that same day and year, but this is one event from that time that stands out vividly in my memory. So why did this snapshot of spontaneous, uncontrived happiness from some thirty years ago lodge itself in my mind? Simply because it was a heartfelt image of sheer, unexpected joy.
And isn’t that what we all want? It must be, for we strive for it in a hundred different ways. We seek it as we do the finest gold—that exquisite model home or highly-sought CEO position. We work to accumulate wealth to find it, spend our money searching for it, destroy our health, or even go so far as to break up a marriage and family (ours or someone else’s), imagining that we’ll gain happiness for ourselves. Yet, it remains as elusive as Nessie, Scotland’s famed Loch Ness monster, or the legendary Bigfoot of the California mountains.
When we think we’ve found happiness, like sand falling through our fingers, it vanishes as quickly as it appears. Or, soon after we make a “happiness touchdown,” the goalposts are moved another five or ten yards farther away.
This quest to be happy is reflected in the abundance of books today on the subject. Much is written on “how to be happy,” “finding happiness,” “being positive,” but it’s one thing to write it and another to put it into practice. Telling someone to be joyful and positive is like advising them to “Stay safe” or “Don’t get lost” as they set out on a journey. Or, when waiting for the results of a lab test, to say, “Don’t worry.” Even the most devout of us will have a pang of worry. These reassurances have nothing to do with our lack of faith but more with our being human.
We live in the center of Munich, and we are painfully aware of how destructive the pandemic has been to this beautiful city. Empty streets and squares, strapped down and padlocked chairs and tables—no lines, nothing of the typical vitality of life in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And if the looks on people’s faces measure happiness, there isn’t much to go around.
Believers have the medicine that heals, the light that illuminates, and the antidote to the spiritual and psychological darkness that seems to be sweeping the world. If you have the ability to cure someone, why wouldn’t you? You’d have to hate the person not to want to share with them the life-giving message found only in the Bible.
2021 gives us all an opportunity for a fresh start. 2020 is over. We will never have to redo it. But we do have a chance to grow strong in Christ, develop a trust in God, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to point others to the source of our joy and contentment. Faith in Christ has changed people’s lives in the past, and it continues to lead others into a life of fulfillment, purpose, and joy. Will you continue to experience bad days and unhappy times? Of course. But hopefully, this time spent in prayer and reading will serve as a renewal or a reset and refresh—a way to stop a negative narrative in your life and lead you back into God’s blazing, glorious, healing light. Let’s discover together how to find joy, no matter what our circumstances.
Photo by Jhonatan Saavedra Perales on Unsplash
