Am I really Happy!

Rediscovering the lost art of

being happy

What do you really want? What drives you, motivates you, gets you up in the morning? A job? A dream? A commitment to get good grades, or meet the right person, or earn a decent pay cheque?

Here’s my bet: You do these things because you want to be happy. You work, you earn, you relate, and strive, and set goals because, when all is said and done, you want happiness. And so do I! The map we follow to get there may look different: some of us might plot out a course of professional achievements and financial success, while others seek meaningful relationships or exciting experiences. But the destination we’ve circled in red ink is the same. We want to be happy.

So, are we? Are YOU? My guess is you’ve run into a few dead ends. Things intended to bring you happiness, haven’t. Experiences you thought would satisfy you didn’t. Am I right?

I had only been a Christian for a few years when I realized my own map to happiness had been leading me in circles. I was listening to a speaker at a conference when he shared an illustration that God used to shape my thinking for the next 25 years.

We’re all chasing rainbows, he said, and our rainbows all have little golden buckets at the end of them. For some of us those buckets are labelled “success.” For some of us “popularity” or “physical perfection.” Some simply read “security” or “family” or even “fame.” But those buckets are empty.

This word picture fascinated me because at the ripe old age of thirteen, I had decided that sports, academics and dating the right girl would determine my success in life.

Then I woke up one day as a senior in high school about to graduate, and realized that I had achieved my goals. I had good grades, a pretty girl and athletic awards. And yet, I felt absolutely empty. It was as though I had chased my rainbow to the very end, only to discover that the bucket at the bottom had nothing in it. I realized that my entire perception of happiness had been warped.

So where does that leave us? Does that mean we can never be truly happy? Absolutely not! In fact, God does no less than promise happiness, if we are willing to follow His map instead of our own. Read more at http://www.bible.org.za/articles/rediscovering_the_lost_art_of_being_happy.html