By Chris WittsWednesday 11 Sep 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
I have an old book first published in 1954. I haven’t looked at it for a long time. It’s called Happiness is a Habit, written by the late Gordon Powell, who was a well-known Presbyterian minister at St. Stephen’s Church in Sydney.
His lunchtime talks were listened to back then by thousands of people. He had this special ability to connect with the ordinary person. In one paragraph, he quotes Abraham Lincoln, who said, ‘Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be, and I think that’s true.‘ Although Abraham Lincoln didn’t always practise what he preached, since he looked very sad most of the time.
The idea of finding happiness is a theme written by many online articles and books. It’s a universal question. Can I really be happy with my life? And back in those years, in 1954, Gordon Powell used to have cards that he gave out to his congregation and on the back of the cards were written these words: If we indulge in negative, resentful, unkind or impure thinking, we become tense, unhappy and depressed. But if we fill our minds with what’s positive and beautiful, we gradually build integrated lives.
The truth behind happiness
Health and happiness depend on positive thinking and faith. How many times have you asked yourself, Well, what is happiness, anyway? Is it feeling good about yourself? Does it mean we go through life not having any problems?
And how can we be happy all the time? It was Leo Ralston, the author, who said in his book, The real reason for being alive. The purpose of life is not to be happy. The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive and to make some difference to those that you know. So happiness in the ancient noble sense means self fulfilment, and it’s given to those to use to the fullest. Whatever talents that God has given them. But somehow we’ve fallen for this trap that money will make us happy.
I’ve read many stories of rich and successful people who were very unhappy. Lots of money had actually not changed their life or taken them into a state of bliss a bit like that movie. The Wizard of Oz, the charming story full of rainbows, dreams hopes and longings for a better world, the story of Dorothy and her friends as they journey to the land of Oz that’s been interpreted many different ways. Dorothy searched for a dreamland somewhere over the rainbow and took her to the Emerald City. With all the glitter and life in the Emerald City, it still proves to be disappointing and hollow. And Dorothy, she wanted to return home to a small town in Kansas. You see somehow that search for happiness was lost and hopefully was found somewhere over that rainbow.
Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that one of the biggest deceptions today is the belief that leisure and money are the two essentials of happiness. But the sad fact is there are no more frustrated people than those who have nothing meaningful to do and those who have too much money for their own good. Now there’s nothing wrong with having money in and of itself. It’s what you do or don’t do with it that matters. One thing it can’t do is buy happiness. So where can we find it?
Where do we find happiness?
Years ago, the BBC TV ran a series called Civilization, the historian Kenneth Clarke said, it’s a lack of confidence, more than anything else that kills a civil. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusionment just as effectively as bombs can. We can become disillusioned and bored. And that’s where God’s word, the Bible is so helpful. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, understood this when he said, I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. That’s in Philippians 4:11.
It’s difficult to be happy all the time, but I believe God wants us to be content, and that’s something we can learn to do. So that means, in practical terms, that genuine contentment is found in performing tasks that take us out of ourselves for a purpose greater than ourselves and the Apostle Paul’s mission was one given to him, a special one by Jesus to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul’s feelings here are quite amazing. He wasn’t chasing happiness. He had simply learned to be content with life. And if you find contentment, happiness just comes along.
Let’s Pray
Dear God, this morning help me to understand what happiness really is. Help me not to go searching for it, because I believe that once we are in union with you and once we understand what’s best for us in your plan, happiness will come. Thank you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.