Happiness

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--" - Thomas Jefferson.


For most Americans this statement brings some feelings of pride and liberty or a foggy recollection from high school government class. It is amazing to me on how carefully the founding fathers chose the words that they used to form the United States. This statement of our founding document sets the attitude that the founders wanted us as Americans to live with.

The right to life... All Americans have a right to live. That seems pretty obvious and maybe it is something that I will get into in another blog. The right liberty... To be a free person. To make a life of our own choosing. Again, another topic for another day.

The strange part of this statement from Jefferson is the pursuit of happiness. To say that as a people we have the right to peruse or chase happiness. In today's American we have changed the right to peruse happiness into the right to be happy.

When did it become okay to think that just because we are American we are guaranteed to be happy? We look to celebrities, family, relationships and the government to make us happy. The sad reality is that we are completely mistaken. No one can make us happy. How can flawed messed up people make other messed up people happy. So what do we do when we are not happy we consume. We buy and eat and spend. We are the biggest consuming nation on the planet. We have become worshipers of consumption. The fact is we are not happy. We worship what we think will make us happy. Our false gods that we built have let us down. When we don't get what we want or have to be inconvenienced to get it we cry "no fair" and stop off to the court to sue someone for our lack of happiness. After all it can't be my fault that I am miserable.

We have become a nation of misery because we have forgotten how to find happiness or even what happiness means. Happiness is not something that happens to us it is something we choose for ourselves. The choice to be happy extends far beyond our situational circumstance to the core of who we are. It is how we choose to face life. No matter what we are involved in or what situation I find myself I can choose to be happy.

In my life I can choose to be happy because I know that I have a savior who loves me. He has promised me that He is working my life out for my good and that my darkest days are just light and momentary troubles. Someday when I go to be with Him in perfection I will see true happiness in all he meant it to be. Until then I choose to be happy and rest in Him. I know the Lord has my best in heart and I just have to trust Him and my happiness becomes Joy.

I want to live each day with joy…