“All men seek happiness, this is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end” says Blaise Pascal. Though the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” is often seen as American, in reality the pursuit of happiness is universal and people all over the world seriously pursue happiness almost all of their lives. Despite the fact that today we have millions of self-help books written on the topic of happiness, and thousands of motivational speakers who claim to know the secrets of happy living, I believe we are probably one of the most confused generations who talk a lot about happiness yet experience it least.
“We Americans are obsessed with being happy. But we are also terribly confused about what happiness is. As a result, we seldom find a happiness that lasts. But because “the pursuit of happiness” is promised to us as a right in the founding document of our nation….we carry a sense of entitlement. We think we deserve happiness. And if we don’t find what we consider to be happiness, we are likely to develop what is called ‘a strange melancholy in the midst of abundance’” says J P Moreland in his book “The lost virtue of happiness”. The very fact that we chase happiness as a life goal demonstrates our shallow understanding of true happiness. Happiness is not a goal in life; it is a byproduct of something else, the building of an inner character. Sydney J Harris once said “Happiness is a direction, not a place.”
The very fact that we chase happiness as a life goal demonstrates our shallow understanding of true happiness. Happiness is not a goal in life; it is a byproduct of something else, the building of an inner character.
Happiness has been man’s quest for many centuries, but the word happiness has taken a strange new twist and understanding in the recent times. The classical understanding of happiness is that it is a virtue that results from being morally good. In contrast to this classical understanding of happiness today we often define happiness as something that satisfies our day to day desires; it is often seen as a feel good emotion. Some dictionaries define the word happiness as a sense of pleasurable satisfaction. Today happiness has nothing to do with morality or the sense of gratification that results from doing the right thing; it is often limited to an emotion that makes you feel good. Since feelings come and go based on many factors which are out of our control, we develop the tendency or urge to grab everything or anything that makes us feel good hoping that it will keep us happy.
Robbing a bank may make thieves feel happy, but to claim the right to pursue that line of work would be absurd. Happiness is not self-gratification…it is the pursuit of a virtuous life.
Chuck Colson writes “We all know the famous words of the Declaration of Independence: that all men are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among these the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Well, this does not mean that humans are endowed with the right to feel good, or to act in a way that pleases them. Robbing a bank may make thieves feel happy, but to claim the right to pursue that line of work would be absurd. Happiness is not self-gratification…it is the pursuit of a virtuous life.” The problem with our younger generations is that the media is brainwashing them that they are entitled to be happy and that happiness is self-gratification (anything that makes you feel happy). It is no wonder why our younger generation is finding it difficult to resist temptations or exercise self-control in life.
J P Moreland says “If happiness is having an internal feeling of fun or pleasurable satisfaction, and if it is our main goal, where will we place our focus all day long? The focus will be on us, and the result will be a culture of self-absorbed individuals who can’t live for something larger than we are. As parents, we will then view our children as a means to our own happiness. Marriage, work, and even God himself will exist as a means to making us happy.” It is not only true that this shallow understanding of happiness makes us very selfish people, but it also is the major cause of depression and discontentment in life. In fact we have become so selfish that even our religious pursuits are often driven by happiness. We have people going to churches because it makes them feel good or happy, please don’t get me wrong it is a blessing and it is necessary to enjoy your church experience, but if we are going to church for happy feelings then we have clearly missed the point of our calling as followers of Christ.
Paul J Wadell in his book “Happiness and the Christian moral life” writes “Both Augustine and Aquinas maintain that happiness is inextricably connected to goodness and inseparable from goodness. Happiness and goodness are one; therefore, in order to be happy we must become good. In this life we may never be perfectly happy, but we will advance in happiness to the degree that we advance in goodness…goodness of God….Augustine and Aquinas believed that happiness is not so much an emotional state, but a discernible and distinctive way of life that brought joy because it made one good….Happiness is a way of life characterized by loving, possessing, and enjoying what is supremely good for us as human beings.” What is good for us may not always make us feel good, in fact many times doing the right thing involves sacrifice, self-control, discipline and saying ‘no’ to an immediate pleasure. True happiness is not a random feeling that comes and goes, it is rooted in an unshakable relationship we have with our creator through Christ who assures us an abundant life.
We have people going to churches because it makes them feel good or happy, please don’t get me wrong it is a blessing and it is necessary to enjoy your church experience, but if we are going to church for happy feelings then we have clearly missed the point of our calling as followers of Christ.
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
