When my brother was 17, he pleaded with our parents to help him buy a purple pickup truck. Ok, it was the ‘80s -- and he thought this truck was the coolest thing he’d ever seen. It would give him freedom and let him help out more (Right!). Mostly, it would give him a chance with what he wanted most -- teen babes! This truck would make him happy.
He tried logic with my dad and emotion with my mom. I think he even suggested that he would pick me up from volleyball practice, if he had this truck. That truck would make him happy. Well, they gave in. And guess what? In weeks, that perfect, purple truck had been misused, and abused. I don’t ever recall him picking me up from anywhere.
He kept the truck until it literally fell apart years later. But it stopped making him happy in no time at all. It wasn’t satisfying in the same way it was after he had it. It didn’t markedly improve his teenage love life. Plus, he had to pay for gas, insurance, and oil changes. The truck wasn’t the source of happiness it had promised. It came with responsibility! It let him down.
We all want to be happy -- to be satisfied. And yet it’s so easy to get caught up in chasing what we think happiness is all about, only to be disappointed. Sometimes it can make you wonder if happiness even exists -- or if it’s always fleeting. Well, there’s good news.
God gives us the keys to permanent happiness through His grace and from His owners’ manual for how to operate our lives.
Are you interested?
Psalm 1 spells it out pretty plainly:
Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
The Psalms are the prayer book of the ancient Israelites. They are poetry. This psalm compares and contrasts two kinds of people -- those who know and honor God (the righteous) and those who refuse to do either (the wicked).
What is God saying through this psalm?
1. Our happiness/satisfaction comes largely from what we DON’T do.
Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
Wrong actions -- We do things we have to rationalize
Wrong attitudes -- Are you the center of your attention?
Wrong influences -- Who do you listen to?
These keep us from the best God has for us.
So how do we avoid these traps?
- Understand who’s in control, and ask for help.
- Diagnose your specific issues.
- Stop it -- with God's power!
2. Our happiness and satisfaction comes from learning and loving God’s way
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
There are rules, but it’s not all about rules.
- Accept that God wants the best for you and that His “way” is understandable and possible to follow. The good father wants to protect his child.
- Understand the fact that your way isn’t God’s way. Surrender.
- The good father offers child a relationship based on love.
3. Our happiness/satisfaction comes from connection to the source of life.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
- God’s grace connects us to the source of life.
- The tree represents the result of connection to the source of life.
- What Jesus did for us makes us righteous, not our behavior.
- No fruit is produced without being rooted with access to life-giving water.
- Acknowledge what you are -- flawed and precious to God at the same time.
- Spend time getting “rooted” with people, with God in prayer, with the Bible.
God doesn’t promise you a purple truck, or a better job, or reconciliation with someone who’s walked away, or a pain free future. He does promise to change you -- if you choose to surrender and to follow His way.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
God views us as His or as separate from Him -- righteous or wicked.
We have the choice:
Happiness and permanence in a deeply rooted life --or--
Dissatisfaction and temporary straw houses that end in death.
God loves you. Choose Him. Choose life!
Thanks Ann! This is an incredible topic.
ReplyDeleteI have heard sermons about the difference between joy and happiness. The difference could be considered splitting hairs, but the concept is incredible. There is something that many sermons refer to as "happiness" that is tied to emotions and to events. In this particular example, happiness would be fleeting something that comes because the Cardinals won or the Cubs lost or because of a raise or because of a rainbow or thunderstorm. Whether we call it happiness or something else, it is too often what we seek in life and then are disappointed when the emotion, the feeling, or the notion passes. However, there is something else which Ann refers to as happiness and in the list of the fruits of the Spirit is referred to as Joy. It is pervasive. It comes from outside of us. It wells up in our very sould and is there regardless of circumstances. It is there at a funeral. It is there in the hospital. It is there when we laugh, it is there when we cry. It is there when we prosper and it is there when we starve. It is not dependent on circumstance, emotion, desires, environment, or people because it comes from God. It is that quiet, peaceful, lasting sensation, condition, oh how words fail when talking about the pure things of God, it is what we truly desire -- a condition when we can handle anything in a way that shows that despite everything else, God is in the house and our joy is complete.
Amen, Brother!
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