Thou Shalt Be Happy

​   As mentioned last week, one of the tenets of moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD) is the belief that the primary purpose of life is to be happy.  It's not difficult to see that this opinion is rampant in our culture.  Of course, we want to be happy.  We are even conditioned to believe that we must be happy.  How many times have you heard the sentiment, "God just wants me to be happy."  Or perhaps you've heard or said about your children, "I just want them to be happy."  Social media promotes this belief with all its pictures of happy shining faces.  Everybody posts pictures from their happy moments for all the world to see.  It would appear that everyone on social media is above average when it comes to happiness.  Advertising is designed to promote products that will enhance your life in some way, will make you happy.
  The idol of happiness can be used to justify almost any behavior.  Not happy in marriage?  Get a divorce.  Not happy with something in your church? Find a new one.  Not happy with someone God has placed in your life?  Shut them out.  Of course, relationships with other people are often complicated and they may indeed cause us at some point to be unhappy. Dr. Biermann writes in his recent article on this topic, "but the lure of the therapeutic is also manifest in the unwillingness of Christians to take up the cross of suffering in the name of following Jesus in service to others.  Personal sacrifice and even a little discomfort are antithetical to self-care and maintaining personal health and well-being. The therapeutic mindset of individual fulfillment and happiness is utterly opposed to the scriptural truth, that God calls us to die to self and live for the neighbor."
  It's important to remember that nowhere in Scripture does God promise us that we will be "happy."  This life is full of difficulty, misery, and tragedy, all things that would cause unhappiness.  But God also promises that He will give us a blessed life, a life full of joy, and abundance, as we follow Him as disciples.  As the Psalmist writes, "Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you."  We live lives in service to our neighbor, and while that service may bring discomfort, sadness, and even persecution, we do it gladly and with joy because we know it is the work of our Lord through us.  We also know that in eternity our joy will be complete as we live in the presence of Christ's glory forever.