Brothers, I have a confession: I'd like to be happy. My wish is, obviously, built on a couple of presuppositions: 1) I don't think myself currently marked by steady happiness, 2) I think I should be happy, 3) I think happiness is attainable. (Others are contained, but I'll leave off there.) This post isn't a defense of already-reached conclusions. I picture myself like a muddy, half-naked, rain-soaked street urchin with my hand clenched and raised to knock at the door of a great stone castle; through the side-panes of the door I can see a roomful of glad-hearted noblemen feasting at a table laden with delicacies, dressed warmly in rich furs and seated by a blazing fire. Not sure why, but that's the image that came to mind. So, I'm going to draw a rough sketch of what I consider happiness to be and how I think we can go about having (or maybe 'catching' is a better word...) it.
First, I think that happiness is the necessary or inevitable end of a good expectation. By 'good' I mean 'ends which we deem profitable'--certainty doesn't always result in gladness of heart (Ex.: knowing that my sick relative will soon die would give me sadness). How we determine profitability is another discussion. By 'expectation' I mean 'hope'--the future realities of which we are by means of faith certain. So, as a hypothetical proof of my proposition, let's say I get word that someone who I love greatly is returning to me after a long absence; I cannot help but rejoice in that. As for Textual evidence the Apostle Peter immediately comes to mind: 'having not seen [Jesus] you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith: the salvation of your souls'. The believer's certainty about Christ--and particularly the progressive consummation of their belief--must end in joy.
Second, the measure of our happiness is directly proportional to the perceived value of the thing for which we hope. If you say, 'I'll give you a candy bar tomorrow,' I'll be excited, to be sure. Not nearly so much, however, as if you promised me an all-expense-paid trip to North Africa.
Finally, and arguing in reverse fashion, if we would have happiness we should aim at faith. Lewis said (thanks for sending this to me, David): 'Aim at this world and you'll miss it. Aim at the next and you'll get it and this world thrown in.' This is true of happiness as well. If we make temporal gladness our ambition, we'll likely miss it and damn our souls in the process.
Ten thousand little trails run off each propositional highway. These three are kind of a condensation of my explorations though. Run with me down a few of the paths, if you'd like...
4 comments:
I think that your third point, faith, is crucial for your first two points to have much effect on happiness. The following thoughts are modified from an illustration I used in a college preaching class when speaking on Philippians 3:20-21 regarding the eager expectation we are to have for heaven.
Pretend that one of your most hoped for childhood dreams was to fly to the moon. Although you have grown up now, you still quietly have this fascination and occasionally you find yourself looking at a full moon and pondering how it would feel to bounce around up there or to gaze back at the tiny earth or to walk on ground so few people had stepped on. For sake of this illustration, pretend you would rather go to the moon even more than North Africa. One day I approach you and say in all sincerity and without joking, that I would like to give you an all-expense-paid trip to the moon. Would this excite you? You consider a trip to the moon a “good expectation” and over the years of dreaming, it has gained more and more “perceived valuable” in your mind. But I doubt this offer of mine would excite you. Why? Because you know I don’t have the means to pay the millions for a trip like that, or at best would highly doubt I did. Now image that I approached you and sincerely said I would like to give you an all-expense-paid-trip to North Africa. I bet this would excite you more than my offer of the moon. Why? Because, in spite of the lower “good expectation” you have for North Africa and the lower “perceived value,” you would be excited because you believe that I could pay your way to North Africa more than you believe that I could pay your way to the moon. And the more you believe that I can pay your way to North Africa (you saw my bank statement with more than enough money for the trip), the more you will be excited and happy in anticipation of the trip.
The more goodness and value we see in the promises of heaven and eternity enjoying God, the more our happiness will grow here. But the effectiveness of these two elements will both be increased for decreased in proportion to the faith we have in the reality of them.
So our capacity for happiness lies contingent on three things: 1) having a perceived good presented to us (we can't be happy without an object), 2) having an attraction or affection for the object presented (we can't be happy if we don't seek what we want), 3) having faith that that which promises the good can deliver the good (we can't be happy unless we believe we have a sure means to the happiness).
So, Aaron in your illustration the disappointment Wesley would feel at hearing you promise the moon would turn to ecstasy if you were head of NASA. So, the disappointment we feel at hearing sin promise true happiness would turn to ecstasy if is were God.
Yes, but that isn’t exactly where I was going with my illustration. I didn’t mean to put so much emphasis on the ability of the giver, though this is an element of what I meant. I intended more to illustrate the belief of the receiver that the hoped for thing would actually come (and used the ability or inability of the giver to bring that out). I know intellectually that heaven is an awesome place and that God is fully capable of giving it to me, but these thoughts too often remain just knowledge that don’t affect me emotionally producing real hope for the future pleasures I have been promised. I get distracted with daily things here on earth and lose focus on what is to come. I guess I stop believing or believe less or forget to believe or fail to believe...I don’t know exactly how to say it. Sadly, the fact that I need to go to work tomorrow morning often seems more real than the fact that I will one day live in heaven. I need faith that this good and valuable reward will be mine or else it doesn’t do much for happiness right now.
We betray our treasure by not feeling towards it. If I make the objective statement 'I love you' to a woman but lack affection, I lie. Real belief is always accompanied by affection. In other words, knowing involves both cognizance and affections--they cannot exist without each other. We don't have faith in the City of God unless we have a desire to be there.
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