Pursue Joy, Not Happiness

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(20) I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. (21) Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: (22) Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. (23) They are new every morning; great is Your Faithfulness.’ (Lamentations 3:20-23); ‘(2) It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. (3) Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. (4) The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.’ (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4)

We see in today’s society a push for self-gratification and self-justification.  ‘If it makes you happy, do it!’, says the common secular groupthink.  It never is ‘our fault’, and in failure never our responsibility – only in success do we want the credit.  However, there is starting to be a glimpse of a push toward realizing that there may be such as thing as too much self, too much of a push to be happy, and not enough of the contentment that is in the Truth.  There is a growing consensus that responsibility means it is our fault, whether it leads to success or failure we reap what we sow is hopefully the next step in the enlightenment, leading to the pinnacle of taking responsibility and living in Truth – accepting salvation in our Lord Jesus.

The Book of Lamentations was written by the ‘Bad News Bear-er’, Jeremiah.  The ‘Weeping Prophet’ had much to be sad about; in his day Judah and Jerusalem were led by pagan kings, who persecuted Jeremiah for his prophecies (letting him wallow inside a muddy well at one point).  He saw the eventual takeover of Jerusalem by Babylon and the exile of his fellow Jews there to the now-ruined city in today’s nation of Iraq. (Jeremiah himself stayed near Jerusalem but later moved (or was moved) to Egypt, where he died.)  It starts with Jeremiah providing the scenario he saw after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the city. 

Yet, in his sorrow and grief, Jeremiah provides he has hope, the hope and the future God proclaimed to him in Jeremiah 29:11; though the times are bad, God is in control and still the same God of compassion, Truth and Faithfulness that He has always been and always will be.  Though the day or the time may not bring happiness, every day brings Joy in the knowledge of God and His love, and this Joy brings contentment.  Paul had this contentment; though he was in a Roman prison (with no TV, ‘3 square meals and cot’, and HVAC provided in those days – and no running water or toilet in his cell, either), he had Joy, though there was little in the way to be happy about he knew Jesus was with Him and loved Him.

Jeremiah was similar to Paul in this; they both accepted the responsibility that through proclaiming the Word of God to an unbelieving, self-centered people they put themselves in the position of persecution.  This persecution brought them into confinement, great discomfort and humiliation.  Yet they did not wallow in self-pity but continued to proclaim the greatness of God and His glory to all.

Solomon also recognized this.  It is likely Solomon was older when writing Ecclesiastes, after his follies into the pagan worship of idols to appease his foreign wives.  Common thought among scholars is he wrote Ecclesiastes to warn others that life is never happy or about happiness as this accomplishes nothing. 

Living is instead about facing the adversity life brings, especially when one faces adversity with God leading them through it.  In reading Ecclesiastes, it is an outline of most of our lives that we endure trials and tribulations, occasionally have great and happy moments, and struggle with the rest of our time we have.  It is not worth pursuing happiness (though our Declaration of Independence guarantees it along with life and liberty) and Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 it is wiser for people to pursue the struggles, or the mourning, rather than pursue happiness as happiness is fleeting and never caught.

This is not to say we should hang out at the local funeral home and become ‘groupies’ who attend every funeral and wake in town (that would be weird).  It is more Solomon telling us that in facing our struggles and taking responsibility in weathering them, we will pursue the Lord and His Gospel, to become more dependent upon Him and His ways in order to get through them and become more Joyful in Him and through Him.  Wisdom is realizing that happiness is not Godliness, but that taking the painful pursuit of responsibility is the beginning of embracing Truth, and in embracing Truth we will embrace the Gospel of Christ.  

In the wise words of Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a POW in Vietnam and later a Vice-Presidential candidate for H. Ross Perot in 1992; “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”  Don’t run away from reality to pursue happiness, but face it with the Lord in Joy.