Several people have asked me since I moved to Dallas if I’m happy.
The question has made me think seriously about happiness and its role in my life.
Happiness is so very fleeting. Even if nothing bad happens, eventually I’ll get bored with just about anything that makes me happy. Even Disneyworld.
Happiness is also destroyed fairly easily. I’m happy now, but just wait ’til later today. Someone will ask me to do something at work that I don’t wanna do, or the dog will poop on the floor, or any number of other little things that happen regularly that threaten to upset my precariously balanced sense of happiness.
Not that happiness isn’t worth enjoying. It would be a waste to ignore or attempt to avoid the feeling in the moments where it quietly exists.
What I’m saying–I think–is that it’s not worth pursuing, contrary to our country’s mission statement. Happiness is icing on our proverbial cake. If it comes, so much the better. But there are more important things in life to spend time and energy chasing: things like faith, hope, love.
And the best of these is love.
7 comments ↓
I totally agree with you.
Great post.
its.
it’s.
two totally different words.
if you have faith, hope, and love, you’re bound to be happy. but then again, ‘happy’ is just a word. what matters is on the inside. ok, so i’ve been watching too many children’s cartoons.
sorry, walker. stupid iPod automatically changed my “its” to “it’s”.
computers are so dumb.
I like to look at it as there being a difference between happiness and joy. Your right in that a dog pooping on your floor or having crap thrust upon you at work can instantly diminish that happy sensation. However when you have joy, you have more of a continuing and longer lasting positive attitude. I believe that with faith, hope, and love comes joy. Joy is something I believe can stay constant even when your not happy.
I’m not happy about the economy or being away from my wife right now but I have joy in life in general that gets me through those times, joy that comes principally from the love of God.
but that’s just me…
then, there is the rare jewel of christian contentment.
“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.” - Edith Wharton
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