Ms. Happiness and mud pies

This is the fourth week of the online bible study, Yes to God; studying the book "Behind Those Eyes," by Lisa Whittle. If you are not yet doing the study, and want to join in, click here. Even so, if you are wondering if you might be struggling with Ms. Happiness... read on....




Oh, Ms. Happiness. You and I have got some stuff we have to work out.....

First of all, Ms. Happiness, let us get this one thing clear. You are, for the most part, a lie! Yes, just like Ms. Confidence, and Ms. Perfection. Lies. Lies. Lies. Somehow, I knew it all along

And yet...

I still long for Happy...
I guess I had better figure out where you are.....

This week was sooo good. And heart wrenching, really. You see, I really think that deep down we all hope that we can be happy on this side of heaven. And while I think we catch moments, glimpses, and tastes of this Ms. Happiness... she is really only dropping by to remind us that there is Something bigger. Something better.

But this chapter was so very wonderful for me, because it concluded what I think we all actually know. Happiness, as an achievable state, is a lie!! It is a Holy Grail, and we are not going to attain it. And folks, somehow... this was freeing for me! I can stop striving (aren't we all looking for it? deep down?) for something I am never going to find.

...and it does not even make me sad to think that I won't be able to maintain an enduring state of 'happy.' No, it truly is a freeing notion. It is enough just to press on.....

The part this chapter that spoke volumes to me was in a listing of what Lisa called "humanistic quests" for happiness. Note (references will follow in bold) that each one of these quests is in search for what we call Happiness. These deceptive quests are:

1. You can make yourself happy
2. Someone you love can make you happy (this includes your precious children!)
3. Something you have or do can make you happy

Here is the gist (are you as guilty of these as I?):

1. You can make yourself happy:

• self-help (even the Bible can be manipulated as a self-help-book toward personal happiness, folks!)
• self-awareness (If I just reach a balanced state of zen, and raked pebbles, and found inner peace, I will finally remain happy...)
• self-focus (me. me. me. this one needs no explanation.)

as Lisa so crisply convicts us, "The more time you spend thinking about you, the less satisfied you are with yourself or anything else. If we look to ourselves to provide the happiness we need in life, we are barking up the wrong tree."

2. Someone you love can make you happy:

Well, friends, I related - big time - as I read this quote by Crystal Boyd:

"We convince ourselves that life will get better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we're frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We'll certainly be happy when they're out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when?"

3. Something you have or do can make you happy:

Lisa hits the nail on the head, "The world's mantra insists that personal perfection can make you happy. Spend more, indulge more, and have more are seen as the golden tickets to happiness and contentment, and women [and men] are buying into them right and left. Yet for all our indulgences, we are still severely unhappy."

...flashback to Ms. Perfection, anyone??

Interestingly enough, Lisa ends this chapter with a twist. After discussing all of the ways we want happy, long for happy, search for happy, and work for happy... we finally throw happy out of the window. Why? Because happy is a mud pie - and it compares NOT with joy that we have in store.

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea." - C.S. Lewis

Happy. happy here, without the very glorious presence of Christ,... is a mud pie.

Yes. Ms. Happiness is only dropping by to remind us that there is Something bigger. Something better. And He is The Only Thing Worth Walking Toward...

So, Ms. Happiness. Thank you for dropping in from time to time. Thank you for visiting. Thank you for brightening my day when you do. But I won't stand around waiting for you anymore. I have to get in and start packing my bags for my holiday at the sea....