ARE YOU HAPPY?

Dr. Richard J. Henderson August 5, 2007

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Hosea 11:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

Introduction

In just one night of watching TV you find hundreds of things you need to make yourself and your life better. If you use this deodorant, you will feel better about yourself and be more confident. If you buy this expensive car with all the options, you'll have greater satisfaction. If you change the color of your hair, you'll be happier - remember, blonds have more fun!

In just one evening, commercials will pitch dozens of products that will make you happier.

I

In Jesus' day they didn't have TV, of course, but there were still people telling others what they needed to do to be happy. Not unlike today people were saying you'll be happier if you store away lots of stuff - stack it high, the more the better. Tear down that old building that won't hold everything anyway, and build new, better, bigger buildings.

If you have a huge harvest, don't share it with other people in need, build bigger places to store it all. Pile up more than you need, and that will give you security.

What does the rich man in this parable say? "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, be merry." Now that you have all this stored away, you can enjoy yourself and be happy.

II

But this isn't happiness. Having way more than you need and partying doesn't make you happy. Having an over abundance, and eating, drinking, and being merry isn't happiness. Otherwise, Paris Hilton would be the happiest person on earth!

Happiness doesn't come from accumulating stuff. Happiness isn't a matter of how many things we have or how much we own.

I think Desmond Tutu, who was a key figure in bringing freedom to South Africa, is far happier than Nicole Richie - who can get anything she wants (except, maybe, out of her jail sentence!).

Jesus' parable, at one level at least, is about happiness. Storing up stuff doesn't make us happy. So, what does bring happiness?

III

Happiness comes from being our best selves in the image of God. When we do what God calls us to do, when we live the way God wants us to live, the result is happiness. It brings genuine satisfaction. We have the sense that living each day is a fulfillment of God's will for us.

That's a happiness that isn't fleeting, but a foundation of contentment on which our lives are built. We know the reward of living well and helping other people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian. He lived during the rise of Adolf Hitler and fought against the Nazi's rule. For those actions he was arrested and spent years in prison. He was hanged just days before the Americans liberated his prison camp. He wrote letters from prison, which have been collected in a book - Letters and Papers from Prison. His letters reflect a genuine happiness, even under the most difficult of situations. The other prisoners came to him for help because he was living a life of solid faith and he was handling these horrible conditions well. Underneath all of his life there was a genuine sense of happiness and goodness.

The apostle Paul writes in his letters about the joy he is experiencing, and many of those letters come from Roman jails. This happiness isn't based on the pleasantness of his conditions or on the number of products he owns, but goes far deeper than that.

Happiness isn't a question of how much we have, how many things we own, or how comfortable our lives are, but who we are as people. Happiness comes from inside. It is the result of living life well, of being faithful, of standing for something. You can't buy that.

IV

The happiness we are talking about is not the same thing as fun. Bonhoeffer wasn't having fun in prison; Paul wasn't having fun in that jail.

Fun is a short, pleasurable feeling that comes and goes. It is nice for a moment and then it's gone. Fun is a roller coaster that zooms and turns and pushes and curves - and then it's all over in a couple of minutes. It's fun while it lasts.

Happiness is a deep contentment with life. It is the understanding that you are attempting to live well. It is living so that you fulfill what God wants you to do and be (although, admittedly not perfectly).

Happiness is not temporary.

Authentic happiness is not so much a feeling as a firm foundation of life.

With drugs or alcohol you can feel good for a little while. But sometimes you want those moments more often. They can lead to needing those moments again and again. And pretty soon you're not happy because you desire those feel good moments more and more often. That's not happiness.

In a more subtle way the same thing can happen with getting things. We can get to the point where we don't appreciate what we have because we are planning the next, bigger, better, newer thing.

We had a friend who got a new boat. It was a beautiful speed boat so that he could take his family and friends skiing and tubing and for long boat rides. The boat wasn't even a year old when he began talking about the next boat he was going to get; it would be longer, wider, and have a place below where they could sleep. He wasn't enjoying the boat he had, because he was already planning the next one.

Conclusion

Happiness isn't something we can buy or accumulate. It isn't something outside of us, but a sense within that we are doing what matters, and that the life we are living is rewarding. It doesn't come from accumulating things or having a life of leisure. It comes from living an honest, authentic life. Sometimes it is as simple as doing good and doing that well.

In the end it is not what we get, but what we give that brings happiness. It is the sense that in some ways I have fulfilled what God is calling me to do, and (however imperfectly) have lived in the image of God.

Happiness is being true to the person God created you to be. That is not a fleeting sense of pleasure, but a foundation that can weather all that life brings us.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2007