Happiness is........unnecessary? No, I believe it serves a purpose. Self-serving? Most often, its a personal prize. The meaning of life? Definitely not. It's so easy to get caught up in the life-long pursuit of happiness. Obviously, it is something deemed important even by our forefathers, but is it really a fulfilling prize? Happiness comes in many shapes and forms but ultimately it is self-seeking. Also, it tends to be very exclusive. The things that make me happy won't necessarily make others around me happy. It usually only benefits yourself.So often, happiness has become the underlying motivation behind the majority of our actions. Yet we are never truly satisfied. There is always that yearning for something more, something a bit greater than ourselves, something a bit better than what there could ever be. Happiness never travels alone, it constantly coupled with expectations. We are happy when our expectations are met and we are unhappy when they are not met. The problem is: people, weather, circumstances, opportunities, the ice cream flavor of the day, events, and life is rarely as we would have it be. This results in disappointments which results in unhappiness which results in an insignificant life? Incorrect.
The goal of our lives is not to be as happy as possible at all possible moments as we attempt to store up happiness for those unhappy days that always seem to be around the corner and cast a shadow on the happiness that we are happily enjoying in those happy moments. (happy appeared six times in the last sentence if you were wondering) For me, the goal of my life is to serve my Creator and the one who gave His life to save mine.
All this to say, my third theory of life is as follows: Happiness should not be the center of our lives (it is a nice perk) as it will usually disappoint and can be quite hollow.
Oh look! Below are lyrics that wrap it up quite nicely. You could have just read them instead of my long-winded post.
"Happiness is overrated
It always lets me down
It's artificially inflated
She's a flirts and she burns me every time
Happiness is just a dream and nothings what it seems"
This sounds like a really good scholarship essay answer...:)
ReplyDeleteHmm...I had not thought of that! I've decided my posts need to be less serious though. I even took happiness and made it somber.
ReplyDeleteHaha yes, maybe you did. You did it well though!
ReplyDeleteHave you read Desiring God by John Piper? He takes a different angle on the topic of happiness, rather that the great business of life is to glorify God by enjoying him forever (ref the Westminster Shorter Catechism). Discord between duty and delight doesn't exist: delight IS our duty. He makes the argument that our comfort/delight/happiness is not self-serving, but that we were created to be happy through glorifying God, not that they need to be two separate things. A quote from the book: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him"
ReplyDeleteI haven't made it through the whole thing yet, but it's worth a read!
I haven't read Desiring God, but I think I've seen that quote before. I will definitely put that on my lists of books to read in the near future, I'm pretty sure it is on a bookshelf somewhere in my house. Thanks!
ReplyDelete