Will I ever be happy?

“Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:13-14). I read through Ecclesiastes tonight. If you read the last entry than you know why. God is really teaching me so much though. Happiness is a crock (stay with me on this). You see our culture (myself included) has this idea that happiness is the ultimate aim of existence. Even Christians whether they would claim such a truth or not, we live like it. We aren’t any more responsible and intentional about life than the ‘world.’ I just spend an hour playing Mario Kart and another 40 minutes watching TV…and I’m no better for it. In fact I usually have ask for forgiveness (for my course language) by the time I’m through. Thankfully such wasteful occurrences are gradually decreasing through God’s changing and renewing efforts in my life. But my friends…I plead with you…wake up! Satan has fooled you into thinking that life is about being happy. Our purpose on earth is twofold: loving God and loving people. I would suggest to you that if each and every activity we partake in each day to not aid in either of those activities than they are futile. I’m not suggesting that video games and television can no longer be a part of our days. But not in the way that the world would partake in them…the heathen plays video games with his mind off and unengaged…the Christian by using it as a means to cultivate relationships or connect with God (and if he isn’t then his activity is entirely useless and retains no redeeming value). But back to ‘happiness.’ Happiness as I speak of it is the immediate pleasure that we constantly seek. We seek it, often, at the cost of obligation and reason. God has something better than our foolish and capricious ideas about what will make us happy. He tells us that HE is what we want whether we ‘feel’ it to be true or not. And when we obey Him and remain consistently united to Him he gives us something far better than happiness…he gives us Joy. Joy often includes the feelings (of happiness) but it is not confined to them. And how is God teaching me this you might ask? Because what I have just stated is exactly how I would describe my current state. I don’t feel happy at all, but I am filled with joy. God has been ministering to me in such a unique way and He is doing things in me that undisturbed gladness could never yield. I’m thankful for such days. In them God reminds me that I don’t belong here and the yearning that I have can never be completely be realized in this world. We are four-dimensional creatures living in a three-dimensional world. I leave you with I Corinthians 13:12 (One of my all time favorite verses). “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” I can’t wait. Gone.