Article April 27, 1998 Issue

Happiness—yours to give

God intends for us to have everything we need.

By Lois Rae Carlson

How much—or how little—happiness we have in life can weigh heavily on one's heart at times. But what has been growing clearer to me lately is that happiness is not something we get for ourselves alone; it's something that we share. Like intelligence or honesty, happiness is something we bring to situations and relationships; it is not something we wait for. Just as we use intelligence to drive a car, or exercise honesty to pay our bills, happiness is part of the legacy of God's love for man. Daily we are given opportunities to share it with others.

The thing that makes happiness seem sporadic at best is the tendency to think of it in material terms. From the standpoint of a human life span, there is only a limited amount of time to find a limited amount of happiness. But the beauty of a spiritual perspective is that it enables us to see that no matter how dim our life prospects may seem at a given moment, we have the joy of God's full support and unmistakable guidance to move us away from always thinking of life in material terms.

The reality of life in God's universe is not one filled with disappointment, degeneration, and chaos. The reality of life is the constancy of God, divine Life itself, satisfying our hearts, enlarging our capacities, and showing us the kingdom of heaven at hand. We exercise our God-endowed happiness when we're alert to God's goodness, which is wholly spiritual, and rebel against the temptation to seek happiness in material things.

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