Happy, Joyous and Free

Do You Desire To Be Happy Or Holy?

Noth­ing in the Bible remotely sug­gests the idea that we should seek “happiness.”

But there is plenty writ­ten about seek­ing holi­ness: “Pur­sue holi­ness, with­out which no man shall see the Lord… like the Holy One who called you, be holy your­selves in all your behav­ior.” (Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15)

While many blithely pur­sue the life depicted on “Fan­tasy Island,” a bat­tle is rag­ing between the forces of heaven and hell — between good and evil. It is here that Satan seeks to destroy us while God is prepar­ing us for eter­nity. It is here that either godly char­ac­ter is being forged, or souls are in the process of destruc­tion. Hardly a place for “happiness.”

“The whole cre­ation groans and suf­fers the pains of child­birth… wait­ing eagerly for our adop­tion… the redemp­tion of our body.” (Romans 8:22, 23)

The pur­suit of “hap­pi­ness” is cen­tered in self and has about it a kind of Dis­neyesque sur­re­al­ism. Sur­rounded as we are by strug­gling human­ity in the abyss of mis­ery and dev­as­ta­tion, chat­ting about “hap­pi­ness” seems a tad trite. Con­sider King Solomon’s poignant observation:

“It is bet­ter to go to a house of mourn­ing than to go to a house of feast­ing… to lis­ten to the rebuke of a wise man than… to lis­ten to the song of fools.” (Eccle­si­astes 7:2, 5)

Para­dox­i­cally, it is only out of a life of holi­ness and ser­vice cen­tered on glo­ri­fy­ing God that we expe­ri­ence pur­pose, mean­ing, and fulfillment.

Note Isa­iah 58:10, 11:

“And if you give your­self to the hun­gry, and sat­isfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in dark­ness, and your gloom will become like mid­day. And the Lord will… sat­isfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered gar­den, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

If “hap­pi­ness” were achiev­able in the wealth­i­est nation on earth, why then are we plagued by bore­dom, crime, drugs, the mur­der of the unborn, teenage preg­nancy, and divorce? It is my sus­pi­cion that Satan has been less than truth­ful to us in hold­ing out the car­rot of “hap­pi­ness.” What do you think? 

Noth­ing in the Bible remotely sug­gests the idea that we should seek “happiness.”

But there is plenty writ­ten about seek­ing holi­ness: “Pur­sue holi­ness, with­out which no man shall see the Lord… like the Holy One who called you, be holy your­selves in all your behav­ior.” (Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15)

While many blithely pur­sue the life depicted on “Fan­tasy Island,” a bat­tle is rag­ing between the forces of heaven and hell — between good and evil. It is here that Satan seeks to destroy us while God is prepar­ing us for eter­nity. It is here that either godly char­ac­ter is being forged, or souls are in the process of destruc­tion. Hardly a place for “happiness.”

“The whole cre­ation groans and suf­fers the pains of child­birth… wait­ing eagerly for our adop­tion… the redemp­tion of our body.” (Romans 8:22, 23)

The pur­suit of “hap­pi­ness” is cen­tered in self and has about it a kind of Dis­neyesque sur­re­al­ism. Sur­rounded as we are by strug­gling human­ity in the abyss of mis­ery and dev­as­ta­tion, chat­ting about “hap­pi­ness” seems a tad trite. Con­sider King Solomon’s poignant observation:

“It is bet­ter to go to a house of mourn­ing than to go to a house of feast­ing… to lis­ten to the rebuke of a wise man than… to lis­ten to the song of fools.” (Eccle­si­astes 7:2, 5)

Para­dox­i­cally, it is only out of a life of holi­ness and ser­vice cen­tered on glo­ri­fy­ing God that we expe­ri­ence pur­pose, mean­ing, and fulfillment.

Note Isa­iah 58:10, 11:

“And if you give your­self to the hun­gry, and sat­isfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in dark­ness, and your gloom will become like mid­day. And the Lord will… sat­isfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered gar­den, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

If “hap­pi­ness” were achiev­able in the wealth­i­est nation on earth, why then are we plagued by bore­dom, crime, drugs, the mur­der of the unborn, teenage preg­nancy, and divorce? It is my sus­pi­cion that Satan has been less than truth­ful to us in hold­ing out the car­rot of “hap­pi­ness.” What do you think?