Happiness - How to Find True Happiness

 By Pastor Alfred Massaquoi

Suicide bomber's detonation

Introduction

Dear readers, I can guess right you might have been going through my blog sometimes to find out what's new have I written on, but unfortunately, you found out nothing new, rather, the old stuffs kept staring at you. I've gone away, for say, three weeks or more? Well, the truth is, I've fallen illness for some time. But the love and mercy of God, I should say, made me well and kicking. 

Don't feel sorry for me, because, I wasn't that bad anyway, and besides, being ill from time to time is a phenomenon common to everyone. But the essential is that am with a sound mind and body by the grace of God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In all this, I had you all along on my mind. And I had prayed God gives you spiritual comprehension from the things I write in the name of Jesus Christ our Master, who has assigned me to his task. I abide in him as you abide in me by the spiritual food ditched out to you at the appropriate time. May God's love and mercy continue to dwell in you.

Nonetheless, I wasn't looking for happiness should you decipher is the reason behind this topic, because I found happiness long since. By reading this piece to the end, you'll notice how I found happiness long time ago. And don't ask me why I chose to write on happiness this time around. I guess I've been inspired is the only reason I can afford now to give you.

Conversely, your happiness is my concern as many of you have wondered where in the world have I been as I've made you accustomed to reading my blog.

However, I've been away actually concerned with one or two things disconnected with writing as I mentioned ill health plus being beclouded in my mind by anxiety about the church. Anyway, I'll wish myself welcome back.

Now, to cut the goose to the chase, why the topic, happiness, and how to find true happiness really necessary?

A happy child

People's Definition of Happiness

Most Europeans may say, listening and watching nature is happiness to them. Because nature is man's natural habitat, little wonder some people glue to nature find happiness with the natural environment. Most keep animals as pets, and while others find identity with the physical environment - environmentalists fighting for its preservation.

Well, to many other people happiness means a lot more different as opposed to others. A girl may think a brand new hand bag or shoe is what she needs to make her happy at the moment.

Someone else would say a brand new car makes him or her happy. Yet, other thinks a job promotion is happiness, or a lucrative job is happiness, while a new date could be a young man's happiness, or being married to the person you love is true happiness.

And to most people a lot of money is a recipe for happiness. Yet, sexual gratification, fame, power, good health, glory, wealth, affluence, the ability to influence others to your way of thinking, either as a manipulator or a credible person, brings most people reasons for happiness.

Therefore, "One man's chop is a poison for another" - meaning, one man's happiness is another man's pain. And so, happiness is relative in that in relation to what you feel makes you happy or brings you pain is relatively acceptable or unacceptable by your next door neighbor.

Nevertheless, what is the standard or who lays the standard for happiness since everyone of us has our choices of happiness? 

Happiness is Individualistic

Yes, we all have values, and what we value is a basis of our happiness. And our values centered on two things: means and ends, and with ends, there are two things involved: happiness and pain.

As humans we seek happiness than we seek pain, but pain or happiness depends on the individual's perspective, as already elaborated. Depression, sadness, poverty, broken-home, divorce, bereavement, discouragement and disappointment, joblessness, just to mention a few, pains the heart.

This quest for happiness down through the century helps us understand why people did the things they did, loved the way they love, worked the way they work, and thought the way they think.

For example, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany who believed to have massacred 6 million Jews in a Gas Chamber, felt happiness by doing so, while the Jews being murdered didn't think it was happiness for them. They felt pain. It was their worse nightmare to be put to death in such a painful way.

Dictators, evil people, or evil perpetuators don't think they're evil, else they won't commit evil. They find happiness by being bad, and their victims believe they have been hurt by evil. But to evildoers, they didn't think they've committed any wrongdoing. They think we label them wicked or evil by our own standpoint or value.

Happiness is on the mind of a Suicide Bomber

Terrorists believe they're Happy

ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State (IS), or Daesh, its acronym in the Arabic language, has been blamed for being a terrorist organisation by the UN and many countries.

ISIL is widely known for its beheading videos of soldiers and civilians, journalists and aid workers, and the destruction of cultural heritage sites. Thus, the UN holds ISIL responsible for human rights violation and war crimes, and Amnesty International charged ISIL with ethnic cleansing in Northern Iraq on a scale unprecedented.

ISIL  is a Salafi jihadist militia group, an unrecognised proto-state, which follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam that gained global notoriety in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in Western Iraq, captured Mosul and carried out the Sinjar massacre.

The multi-billion-dollar question is, does ISIL; Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (famous for bombings in London and Madrid and other planned attacks); the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the Boko Haram in Nigeria (known for its suicide bombings, rape and abductions), for instance, think they are evil, or do they believe they are practicing evil, or do they fear they are  committing crime against humanity, which is evil; or do they think they are only labeled as "terrorists" organization by "infidels"?

Has somebody called these "terrorists" over, and sit them down on the round table to sincerely and genuinely ascertain specifically why they are abusing their own lives and that of other humans? Does anyone try to seek remedy of the situation without taking sides by being a party to the problem?

Does negotiation or conflict resolution mean shuttling between rival factions in different rooms refusing to see each other? If they are to come to terms with the conflict, won't they see each other in the face and talk? Why would you resolve a dispute without having the other party involved?

Furthermore, should the West sit back as perpetrators of violence and war, regime change, and the rest - with its apparatus the UN, the CIA, the Pentagon, the MI5, the Secret Societies, just name them, point an accusing finger forgetting that the rest of the other fingers point to them as evil? Judge for yourselves what they do. Do their acts of atrocities make the West happy, or do atrocities make terrorists happy, don't they?

Doubtlessly, Evil brings happiness, likewise, Good brings happiness for some people. It depends on what is Evil, and what is Good for some people? Thus, which one of these make you happy? What is happiness for you? 

Standard for Happiness

Generally, there are standards that make for happiness. For example, the rule of law. Because law is a social construct, meaning, society makes law, and provides enforcement for its violation, it's painful if one defaults the law as no one is above the law. Hence, it brings happiness to the punisher of the law.

The punisher is happy because he's doing the right thing in that you accepted to obey the rules and regulations, but you perhaps willfully failed to do so. Thus, your happiness ends where someone else's happiness begins.

In this case, the law is a deterrent to bad behavior (depending on society's definition of bad behavior since bad behavior in one's culture is acceptable by another as good behavior) you might consider right in your eyes.

Terrorists know no law beyond its own interest for they lack conformity to the cultural legislation of society and they create their own culture with their own rules to govern themselves. Thus, rejecting societal culture and the means of achieving  them brings terrorists under the spotlight of being rebellious when they leave their enclave and force outsiders (with abduction, suicide bombings and crime against humanity) to buy their ideology without sound reasoning.

Consequently, happiness - what is true happiness? What do you think? And what do I think?

I cannot tell you what I think else I might be judging you by my own standards? But if I talk of a yardstick, which is a generally accepted standard, could be adjudged by reasonable men to be just and worthy of emulation.

No doubt, God is the standard. He sets the standards for all humans so that it may go well with us as we sojourn this unknown world of ours. God, in effect, is the law - His rules and principles when observed are hope, and are the sources of true happiness.

God's law can be understood this way. Think of a driver in his car plowing the high way streets and not respecting the traffic rules. Imagine what would happen if he sways off his lane, or runs 100 kilometers per hour in the city, or ignores the traffic light? 

Why Obey God?

Certainly, there would be a ghastly accident! Whose's to blame for the loss of lives, and himself? Obviously, himself, because he ignored the traffic rules, doesn't he?

So, too, if we ignore God's law, we're bound to be unhappy. We're not only free morale agents, but our freedom is not without responsibility. We cannot do whatever we want to do with our lives. We might be hurt or might hurt others.

So, the happiness we seek comes with responsibilty. We're accountable to God. He has the right to set the standards for us. We're answerable to God. He's our Boss, our Supreme Ruler. And because He's loving, His rules are just, merciful, and loving - all intended for our happiness.

God is happiness. He gives happiness rather than pain. Until we begin to appreciate this by subjecting ourselves under His rulership, we cannot find peace nor happiness.

For instance, God's rule: "Thou shall not commit murder," is so clear cut that if terrorists and other belligerents just obey this rule, would there be the need for the violence, war, crime and genocides in our century?

Let's find out what God Himself tells us about happiness as we read the following scriptural quotes below:

God Teaches us Happiness

Isa. 48:17-19:

The holy God of Israel, the Lord who saves you, says: “I am the Lord your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go. “If only you had listened to my commands! Then blessings would have flowed for you like a stream that never goes dry.

Victory would have come to you like the waves that roll on the shore. Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand, and I would have made sure they were never destroyed.”

God is the Only Source of our Happiness

Ec. 2:26:

God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him, but he makes sinners work, earning and saving, so that what they get can be given to those who please him. It is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

True Happiness is Giving

Acts 20:35:

I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.’”

God's Acceptance brings Happiness

Gal. 4:6-8:

This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

“Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven, whose sins are pardoned! Happy is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of!”

Conclusion

What did you glean from the scriptures above on happiness? We were talking about 'Happiness - What is True Happiness?' weren't we?

As you have seen true happiness is not your possession, such as whatever you have or your needs and wants in life. But most people believe money is happiness because of what money can buy for instance, while others may look to self gratification for happiness.

If money is that happiness, why do most money people sometimes feel furlough, foreboding or despondent, and sometimes wish to take their own lives?

This certainly helps us appreciate that wealth, power, fame, authority over people, good health and what have you, is only beneficial for a little time, but happiness from God in any form or shape, is permanent, yet, it benefits its receivers everlastingly.

No wonder the Bible said that true happiness is giving more and receiving less. How true this is when you consider happy many who have done great sacrifices in their lifetime to help thousands, if not, millions to gain life, happiness, success and prosperity!

Mahatma

In our times, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a British trained barrister-at-law, was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. He employed nonviolent civil disobedience, which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world, but was assassinated by being shot.

Nelson Mandela

The late Nelson Mandela of South Africa had gone to prison for 27 years to see apartheid relinquished in that country.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, called by Catholics as Saint Teresa of Calcutta  was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She founded in 1950 the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic faithfuls with over 4,500 sisters, active in 133 countries since 2012.

The congregation managed homes for people dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. They ran soup kitchens, dispensaries and mobile clinics, children's- and family-counselling programmes, orphanages, and schools. And members of the church, who take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, profess the vow: "To give wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor."

Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Catholic sisters called Missionaries of Charity, just to mention a few hardworking and self-sacrificing people, were or are certainly happy, weren't they, when they saw people's lives transformed by them?

The best way to find happiness then is to help others find happiness when we give up your talent, time, energy, money or resources for them, when we, not only provide for their needs, but we help them grow in Christ's love by teaching them God's word for salvation. Yes, this is true happiness, and God will supply your needs accordingly by means of Christ Jesus. Amen.