I’ve recently heard a lot of things said about pleasure, the pursuit of happiness, satisfaction, and things like that. To be sure, we live in a free country where we are at liberty to pursue those things, and for the most part without the authorities intervening. Our own Declaration of Independence declares that humans have unalienable rights from God to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So from our country’s birth, happiness (among other things) has been at the heart of our existence. But Americans aren’t the only people who desire happiness. All of humanity desires happiness. What makes us different is that we are of the few who can pursue it freely. However, the free pursuit of happiness and pleasure has created a unique problem: we’re unhappy. In fact we’re so despondent and wrapped up in feelings of self-hatred and loathing that approximately 26% of American adults (1 out of 4 people) struggle with some form of depression. Why is happiness so elusive?
A man much smarter than me said, “’Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold this also was vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1) King Solomon, the wisest human being to ever live, and the richest king to ever reign in Israel drowned himself in pleasure, and in the end found it was a vain pursuit. He, of all people, was free to pursue happiness. Freer than any American, freer than any person who ever lived, Solomon had the wealth, the resources, the power, and the wits to freely pursue happiness. He pursued happiness through pleasure, through wisdom, but in the end he “hated life” (2:17). If Solomon’s pursuit of happiness caused him to despair of life, as people of average intelligence, limited wealth, limited resources, and limited freedom, what hope do we have of finding what he could not find?
Could it be that our method for finding happiness is flawed? The American Dream is to have a home in the suburbs with a privacy fence, two automobiles – an SUV and a sedan, a family pet, 2.5 children, and a career that sustains it all. But even if we have these things, it isn’t enough. When these things don’t satisfy, when we spend years working long hours, neglecting our families so we can pay our enormous bills, and happiness still hides herself, depression, anxiety, and even anger begin to settle in our hearts. When those take root, happiness will seem like a distant hope that with each passing day gets farther away.
It is here that we turn to drastic action. Some claim they’re having a midlife crisis and do inventive things to bring spice back into their lives. Others begin to blame their spouse and seek happiness in the arms of a forbidden lust. And a few simply go postal, ending it all in a blaze of fury. This is why Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The desperation is found in that despite our best efforts life is never quite as sweet as we had hoped it would be. It is quiet desperation because we never tell anyone of our disillusionment, but instead perpetuate a lie that everything is just fine because we allegedly have it all together. In the end, we too hate life. One in four Americans can vouch for this.
It isn’t my purpose here to draw attention to depression per say, or its inner complexities. If you want that, listen to Timothy Keller’s sermon called The Wounded Spirit (podcast available here). Rather, how can we turn the tide? How can the pursuit of happiness actually lead us to happiness? First, we’ve got to admit that what we’re doing to find happiness simply is not working. Keeping up with the Jones, bombarding ourselves with entertainment and drowning in pleasure has not worked and it never will. The very freedom that allows us to pursue happiness also opens the door to self-ruin by way of endless pleasure seeking. In the end, freedom is wasted.
Second, we need to recognize that happiness is both an emotion and a state of being. Most are pursuing the emotion. However, it is far better to possess happiness than to simply experience the emotion. When your state of being is happiness, you own it. You possess it. Here’s what I mean. When I say, “John is a happy guy,” it doesn’t mean that every waking moment he is actually happy. It is a statement of his disposition, not his current emotional experience. John owns happiness as part of his character. It anchors his personality so when he moves to one extreme or the other, the anchor always pulls him back toward center. This is never achieved through the accumulation of wealth, possessions, conquests, or social status.
How can a person do this? There is really only one way. Romans 4:8 says, “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (ESV). The word blessed can be translated from the Greek as happy. It is from the Greek word makarios, which means to be happy, or blissful, or a self-contained happiness (thank you, Greg Laurie). Possessing happiness as a state of being, therefore, comes through being forgiven for your sins. Trusting Jesus Christ for salvation, repenting, and then living a life that is pleasing to God is how you possess happiness. Therefore, at the center of the Christian life, there exists a happiness/blessedness that has its source in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit that dwells within each believer. Just like, John, Christians do not always find themselves happy emotionally, but they should have an anchor in Jesus Christ that draws them back towards happiness of being. Therefore, the pursuit of happiness is nothing less than the pursuit of a deep relationship with Jesus Christ.
Why are there so many sour Christians? Perhaps they stopped pursuing the source of their happiness/blessedness. Why do so many Christians end up being bitter? Maybe they might have found Jesus, but they continued to search for satisfaction in this life elsewhere. As Americans, we are free. Don’t squander that freedom pursuing fleeting pleasures. Use your freedom to pursue the only lasting pleasure in all of creation. Pursue Jesus.
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