We all have had moments of happiness in our lives,
maybe fleeting moments, but still, moments that we felt happy.
We know that feeling and we seek to have it again and
again.
For some that moment is the childhood’s Christmas, or
maybe going fishing with your father, baking with your mother, the game night
or playing out together.
No matter if you are rich or poor, famous, or
notorious, or just a normal person, the moments of happiness are quite alike.
The feeling of happiness is the same and we all long
for it.
Sadly many times we, in vain, feel jealous and envious
of the moments of happiness of others.
Or what we imagine as moments of happiness of others.
Fleeting happiness
We can assume that Job was a happy man.
He was one of them most highly considered men in the
Middle East.
He was rich and he had seven sons and three daughters.
He had the keys to the happiness and success.
Job
29:7-20
The Message (MSG)
7-20 “When I walked downtown
and sat with my friends in the public square,
Young and old greeted me with respect;
I was honored by everyone in town.
When I spoke, everyone listened;
they hung on my every word.
People who knew me spoke well of me;
my reputation went ahead of me.
I was known for helping people in trouble
and standing up for those who were down on their luck.
The dying blessed me,
and the bereaved were cheered by my visits.
All my dealings with people were good.
I was known for being fair to everyone I met.
I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame,
Father to the needy,
and champion of abused aliens.
I grabbed street thieves by the scruff of the neck
and made them give back what they’d stolen.
I thought, ‘I’ll die peacefully in my own bed,
grateful for a long and full life,
A life deep-rooted and well-watered,
a life limber and dew-fresh,
My soul suffused with glory
and my body robust until the day I die.’
and sat with my friends in the public square,
Young and old greeted me with respect;
I was honored by everyone in town.
When I spoke, everyone listened;
they hung on my every word.
People who knew me spoke well of me;
my reputation went ahead of me.
I was known for helping people in trouble
and standing up for those who were down on their luck.
The dying blessed me,
and the bereaved were cheered by my visits.
All my dealings with people were good.
I was known for being fair to everyone I met.
I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame,
Father to the needy,
and champion of abused aliens.
I grabbed street thieves by the scruff of the neck
and made them give back what they’d stolen.
I thought, ‘I’ll die peacefully in my own bed,
grateful for a long and full life,
A life deep-rooted and well-watered,
a life limber and dew-fresh,
My soul suffused with glory
and my body robust until the day I die.’
Job’s life was perfect.
But when he had lost his children, his wealth and his
health, that happiness is only a fleeting memory.
Job 30:1-8
The Message
(MSG)
The Pain Never Lets Up
30 1-8 “But
no longer. Now I’m the butt of their jokes—
young ruffians! whippersnappers!
Why, I considered their fathers
mere inexperienced pups.
But they are worse than dogs—good for nothing,
stray, mangy animals,
Half-starved, scavenging the back alleys,
howling at the moon;
Homeless guttersnipes
chewing on old bones and licking old tin cans;
Outcasts from the community,
cursed as dangerous delinquents.
Nobody would put up with them;
they were driven from the neighborhood.
You could hear them out there at the edge of town,
yelping and barking, huddled in junkyards,
A gang of beggars and no-names,
thrown out on their ears.
young ruffians! whippersnappers!
Why, I considered their fathers
mere inexperienced pups.
But they are worse than dogs—good for nothing,
stray, mangy animals,
Half-starved, scavenging the back alleys,
howling at the moon;
Homeless guttersnipes
chewing on old bones and licking old tin cans;
Outcasts from the community,
cursed as dangerous delinquents.
Nobody would put up with them;
they were driven from the neighborhood.
You could hear them out there at the edge of town,
yelping and barking, huddled in junkyards,
A gang of beggars and no-names,
thrown out on their ears.
The happy moments had lasted for decades, and then
they were all gone.
Where were the keys to the happiness now?
The world is filled with stories like Job’s.
Life can be unpredictable, no matter how well we live,
how safe we feel and how good we behave.
Not everything depends on us.
It is good to have children, to build houses and have
wealth.
It is good to enjoy the fruits of our work, our
achievement and happiness.
Without Job’s story something very important would be
missing from the Bible.
Too many times us Christians think we are invincible.
Too many times we close our eyes to the reality in
which we live.
Ecclesiastes 9:1-3
The Message
(MSG)
9 1-3 Well, I took all this in and thought it through, inside and out. Here’s
what I understood: The good, the wise, and all that they do are in God’s
hands—but, day by day, whether it’s love or hate they’re dealing with, they
don’t know.
Anything’s
possible. It’s one fate for everybody—righteous and wicked, good people, bad
people, the nice and the nasty, worshipers and non-worshipers, committed and
uncommitted. I find this outrageous—the worst thing about living on this
earth—that everyone’s lumped together in one fate. Is it any wonder that so
many people are obsessed with evil? Is it any wonder that people go crazy right
and left? Life
leads to death. That’s it.
True source of happiness
We cannot find the true happiness, before we have
faced the reality in this world.
Life in Christ is true realism and seeing the world
with eyes open, accepting both the beautiful and the ugly.
The truth is that Christians aren’t invulnerable, and
we are as susceptible to pain, accidents, unhappiness and death as everyone
else.
That is the condition of the world where we live in.
We are not called to be rich here, we are not called
to be successful and to build a kingdom here.
The true keys to the happiness are elsewhere.
Psalm 73:25-28
The Message
(MSG)
25-28 You’re
all I want in heaven!
You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God—
oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
God, I’m telling the world what you do!
You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God—
oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
God, I’m telling the world what you do!
God is our home and happiness, the true happiness can
be found in Him, in knowing Him, in His presence, in knowing and reading the
Bible and from its realistic wisdom for life.
Bible is a very positive, life fitting book filled
with the flavor of real life.
It tells us very clearly to enjoy everything good that
the life has to offer; the beauty of the nature, our friends, family, husband
or wife, children and grandchildren, good food, real parties, work and
vocation.
A person without God can only see this life and that
is why Job’s experiences (losing his family, health and wealth) crushed the
happiness and joy in life permanently.
From the eternity’s point of view
For a Christian this life is just a part of the
eternal life.
The life does not end in the physical death but
continues on.
Only this helps to see the life from a wider point of
view.
Joy and happiness are something much deeper and more profound,
than the attachment to the gifts that God has created.
Weather those gifts are people, material things or our
mission in life.
Like Leo Tolstoy says in War and Peace: “If there is a
God and future life, there is truth and good, and man's highest happiness
consists in striving to attain them. We must live, we must love, and we must
believe that we live not only today on this scrap of earth, but have lived and
shall live”
Or another great author C. S. Lewis, who has the habit
of going straight to the point: “God can't give us peace and happiness apart
from Himself because there is no such thing.”
Closer we are to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the
closer our relations becomes, further from the temporal does the happiness and
joy move into the eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
The Message
(MSG)
16-18 So
we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks
like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new
life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small
potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for
us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here
today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
It is important that we as Christians keep in central
in our hearts and lives the eternal, the timeless.
If we remember to do that than our maxims and counsel
about ordinary everyday life will create hope, happiness and true joy, even in
our most difficult situations.
Only in presence of Jesus the true happiness and joy are possible.
Only He has the keys to this, and future, life’s happiness.
