I was thinking about what it meant when people say that all they want in their life is to be happy.
A few years back, I told a friend that my goal in life was not to be happy. He must have thought I was sadistic.
Then I realised that I must have shocked him.
There's a line in Sophie B Hawkin's "As I lay Me Down" that says "I wonder why I feel so high, though I am not above my sorrows". I do realised that a lot of things in life are many good things which do not make you happy, but they bring your joy.
Obedience, perserverance, responsibility, commitment, being patient, faithfulness, kindness... how happy can we possibly be waiting for someone, committing to something, doing something because out of responsibility, sticking on and pressing on when we don't really feel like it? The ways of the world teaches is to do whatever that makes you happy, and leave the uncomfortable things in life belongs to realms of the religious and overly moralistic.
Happiness is a feeling, joy isn't. Joy is knowing that you are bearing the fruits of the spirit inside you, knowing that even when that moment ends, you come out more like Jesus, who was not above His own sorrows, but walked in joyful obedience to the way of the cross.
Oh yes, how I got this thought.. I was climbing up the stairwell from the first to second floor in between meetings, thinking about what Jack Neo would have done if he resisted his extra-marital temptations and fought the thought that the pursuit of his own happiness isn't just the only goal his life. Very miserable, but hopefully responsibly and obediently joyful.
