Don't Be Too Happy!

A young man ecstatically declared to me recently, "I'm in love!" And sure enough, he glowed. (Do men glow? I'm not sure. But he was quite obviously enraptured by something out of the ordinary!) He went on, "What can I say? I want to sing something from Rodgers and Hammerstein! I'm so happy!" And then he added, sort of apologetically, "I know it won't last, but . . ."

I was reading, at the time, a memoir written by a woman who also was afraid of being too happy. She declared to her fiancé one day that she was truly happy for the first time in years, but then quickly sensed a dread of "the Evil Eye" reversing her good fortune, now that she had spoken aloud of it. This notion of denying our happiness in order to preserve it is a persistent idea in many cultures, and a caution sometimes observed by even the most sensible and careful thinkers.

Happiness sometimes is indeed an elusive thing, especially if we think of it as the giddy, "blissed-out" state that we so relish but could not possibly maintain over a long period of time. Regardless of what the Declaration of Independence says about having the right to pursue happiness, it usually doesn't work that way. Happiness as a goal falls short of attainment for most of us. In fact, many wise speakers and writers have said that happiness is found as a by-product along the way as we search for something more noble than our own shallow excitement.

In Scripture, the word that is translated as "happy" would be clearer if we understood it to mean "blessed" (blest) or even supremely blessed and fortunate. Read the Beatitudes again (the "Blesseds") in Matthew 5 and you will see that those whom Jesus declared "happy" were not the blissful. They were the poor, the sad, the humble, those who were hungry for justice but willing to be merciful, the pure of heart, and those who sought peace but were persecuted for doing right. Jesus told His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you [about abiding in His love], that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:11)

The gospel chorus is true,

This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me
. . . The world didn't give it; the world can't take it away.

This love that I have, the world didn't give it to me
. . . The world didn't give it; the world can't take it away.

This peace that I have, the world didn’t give it to me
. . . The world didn't give it; the world can't take it away.

MaryMartha

Another entry related to happiness is "Things Mama Taught Me: Life Isn't Always Fair," located [here].

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.