Ken Dodd sang about it:
‘Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I posses
I thank the Lord I've been blessed
With more than my share of happiness.’
And today is the International Day of Happiness! Since 2013 March 20th has been set aside by the United Nations for all member states to recognise that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal and to celebrate every effort to bring happiness to people through education, sustainable development and poverty eradication. Why the date? This was suggested by the prime mover of the Day of Happiness, the UN special advisor Jayme Illien. March 20th is the March equinox, ‘a universal phenomenon felt simultaneously by all of humankind, and which occurs the moment when the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the center of the Sun’s disk.‘ (Wikipedia).
A few years ago the UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon called upon all human beings to ‘dedicate our efforts to filling the world with happiness.‘ It would be churlish not to associate ourselves with such a positive and life-affirming aspiration but as in all things I sense my faith bringing some perspective to the whole concept of ‘happiness’.
I have attended meetings with a friend and colleague who when he is asked if he is happy with a particular decision that has been taken will often reply: ‘I am not here to be happy! I am here to serve.’ I quoted this once in a sermon and a few people thought I was suggesting there was something wrong with being happy. (Lord, set the angels to guard that space between my mouth and people’s ears!) The point is that sometimes in the Christian life personal happiness has to be set aside to realise the priority which is to serve our Lord. I doubt if Dietrich Boenhoffer was happy in Flossenberg Concentration Camp but he served. I doubt if Martin Luther King was happy leading a civil rights march in Selma Alabama but he served. I doubt if Mother Theresa was always happy dealing with the poverty she encountered in Calcutta but she served.
For the Christian happiness has to go deeper than the inner satisfaction we experience when things are going well. Health, wealth, achievement, important relationships can all be taken away and where then is our happiness? The experience of the apostles was that everything that made life easier and bearable could be taken away but still there could be joy in what they knew to be true concerning Jesus and joy in being faithful to Him.
When Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonika he said: ‘Be joyful always . . . ‘ Yes, he said ‘always’. (1 Thessalonians 5: 16) Unrealistic? Well, if that means working it up, forcing a smile unconnected to my heart, then that gets us nowhere. What Paul has in mind is an inner life that is focussed on the things that come to us through our faith in Jesus: the promise of His presence in every circumstance, forgiveness through His death on the Cross, the gift of the Holy Spirit as our constant assurance, the reality of the Eternal Kingdom and our place in it. These are things that can never be taken away by even the worst of circumstances, the ‘solid joys and lasting treasure‘ celebrated by John Newton.
Paul did not call the Thessalonians to an attitude he was not prepared to adopt. In Philippi he and Silas were stripped, beaten, flogged, imprisoned, their feet fastened into stocks. I doubt if they were happy. But around midnight the other prisoners heard something new in that place. It was the sound of these Christian men praying and singing hymns to God. Happy? No. Joyful, yes. And continuing to be witnesses to what they had experienced in Christ. (Acts 16: 22-28)
I recently fell into conversation with a man who was behind the counter in a charity shop. He asked what I did for a living. When I told him he said: ‘Ah a sour-faced Presbyterian.’ It was one of those half-joking, half-serious comments which I didn’t take too much to heart. I mean, me? Sour-faced? Well, maybe sometimes but at this moment my prayer is that my inner life is kept sweet with the knowledge of all that God has done for me in Christ.
