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Resources - Meditations
This and That
Reflections on life and faith
By Harry Burggraaf
Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!
Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled!
Happy are you who weep now; you will laugh!
Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and say that
you are evil, all because of the Son of Man!
Be glad when that happens, and dance for joy, because a great reward is
kept for you in heaven.
(Luke 6. Good News Bible)
Happiness is the child of
Love and Truth,
Who struggled just to live yet found each other;
And in the crib of all their weariness
Their little happiness lay sleeping. (Michael Leunig)
What a strange understanding of happiness Dr Luke has. It turns on its
head every statistic we know and the common experience of every normal
human being. How can poverty, hunger, rejection, hatred and insults,
sponsor happiness? They seem more like a recipe for absolute misery and
a good dose of depression.
In a recent study of ‘well being’ researchers attempted to identify
those factors which most promoted happiness. They surveyed over 100,000
people (a mammoth study by any standards of social research; it could
only happen in the USA).
These are some of the findings about what makes people happy.
The greater the level of education, the higher people rated on the
happiness quotient.
People
with greater disposable wealth rated higher on the happiness scale.
Women were generally happier than men, but this decreases the more equal
they are with men in terms of income and employment.
People over forty were less happy than those under forty. When I recounted this at the dinner table my children gave each other those knowing looks. However, the study indicates that over sixty-five the happiness factor increases again. Now that’s something to look forward to!
Long term,
enduring marriage relationships, the study assures us, are worth a
$100,000 of disposable income a year on the happiness quotient! It’s
nice to hear that marriage is at least good for something.
It’s hard to know how seriously to take these sorts of studies but they
do reflect the values of the society and culture which sponsors them. To
give happiness a dollar value is only possible in an age infatuated with
the material and the economic.
How strange are Jesus’ words – happy are the poor, happy are those who mourn, happy are those who suffer evil! They would play havoc with the statistics of any happiness study.
The happiness Jesus speaks about is possible because it is not externally driven. The happiness (Greek ‘makarios’, blessedness) of the beatitudes describes the joy which has the secret within itself; that joy which is independent of all the chances and changes of life. ‘Happiness’, as we have grown accustomed to using it, gives its own case away. It is the ‘hap’, the ‘chance’ of life that drives it – education, disposable income, stimulating recreation, entertaining diversions, satisfying employment. Change the circumstances and happiness fades. Happiness, in Leunig’s words, as a child of Love and Truth, can sleep, even in the crib of all their weariness.
This happiness seeks us even through pain, sorrow, loss, tears, disappointments, and nothing in life or death can take it away.
William Barclay, the well-known biblical scholar, writes, “The world can win its joys, and the world can equally well lose its joys. A change in fortune, a collapse in health, the failure of a plan, the disappointment of an ambition, even a change in the weather, can take away the fickle joy the world can give. But the Christian has the serene and untouchable joy which comes from walking for ever in the company and in the presence of Jesus Christ.”
If this sounds a little ‘other-worldly’, especially to us sensory bombarded, image stimulated, activity driven moderns, it is because we have bought the myth that it is our experiences that determine our well being. Happiness is built on other foundations, such as Love and Truth, and God’s grace, and Jesus’ promise that “no one will take your joy from you” (John 16).
As we approach Christmas again this year the jingles and the cliches will urge us to find happiness and contentment in things; in the glitter of the material. But it’s only at the manger and in the ‘Word become flesh’ where we can find true blessedness.
Interesting really, that in the study referred to before, religion and a commitment to some framework of meaning, was another factor that dramatically increased a person’s rating on the happiness scale. Why should we be surprised?
Jesus said
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your
mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food
and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no
less. That’s the moment you find yourself proud owners of everything
that can’t be bought.”
(Matthew 5. The Message)
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