Got Happy?

Today is the 13th anniversary of 9/11.  With the morphing of al-Qaeda to ISIS or ISIL, do you feel any safer?  Polls show most Americans don't.  The Great Recession officially lasted from December 2007 until the Summer of Recovery in June 2009, do you feel any better off financially?  According to CNN Money, income has dropped 8.3% below where it was in 2007.

Despite being the world's only super power, America is not doing super.  In fact, according to the World Happiness Report, America comes in behind Mexico in our happiness factor.  Really?  Mexico?  Wow!  That hope and change thing seems to have changed our hope to despair.  But should it have?

Is our hope for tomorrow and our happiness for today to be dependent on the rise and fall of the GNP or the terror threat of ISIL?  Is it even to be dependent on personal gains or losses?  Will you be happier when you get that raise?  Will you be content when your child is out of trouble?  Will retirement bring contentment?

No!  Happiness is not a product of external factors at all, happiness is a choice, something we decide to embrace or reject.  The Bible is very clear in saying, "Rejoice always and again I will say rejoice!" (Phil 4:4).  Paul goes on to say, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and all circumstances" (v. 12).  

Some of the happiest people I have encountered have been the poorest and some of the most depressed have been well to do.  When everything goes right, some folks still turn left.  When the world comes crashing in around some people they simply climb up the rubble with a smile on their faces.  People who are waiting for the world to make them happy, keep waiting.  People who choose to be happy are never put on hold.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "A man will be about as happy as he chooses to be."  And, I hasten to add that Abraham Lincoln's life was marked with more adversity than advancement.  Paul's life was marked with more persecution than privilege.  Jesus Christ's life was marked by suffering.  Nonetheless, "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame..." (Heb 12:2).  

Don't wait for happiness, embrace happiness where you are.  In Christ, we can face anything, rejoicing in the knowledge that He has given us the victory and that his glory is ours.  Jus' Sayn.