Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 3:9-14
Happiness Is a Surprising Bonus of Life
Ecclesiastes is a very thoughtful and practical book. In verse 12, we read that there is nothing better for people than to be happy. We all like to be happy, right? Nobody wants to be sad, I hope! We all want to be happy, and we are happy most of the time, aren't we? I think we are. Even with all the troubles, pains, and sufferings we go through, we are still a happy group of people.
It may not show up outwardly, but deep inside your heart, you know that happiness is there. You never come to a situation where you say, “I have lost everything, and I give up,” because you have the faith that holds you tightly in God's presence. That is a great blessing. As Christians, we hold on to that faith.
As you all know, the Declaration of Independence of our country speaks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So, is happiness something we can pursue? That is a thoughtful question we need to consider.
It is good to aim for happiness, but pursuing happiness as a goal can leave us frustrated because happiness seems to recede from the person who pursues it. The more you think you are getting closer to happiness, the farther away it can seem.
Living joyfully and living a life that makes us happy is not something we accomplish by making happiness our ultimate goal. Instead, happiness comes to us as we live a meaningful life. Rather than pursuing happiness directly, we discover it along the way as we live with meaning and purpose.
One of the companies I worked for in the past was a major online retailer. Its motto, displayed in its offices, was, “Work hard, make history, and have fun.”
If you worked there, you knew they understood how to make people work hard. They had processes in place, and there was no fooling around. They paid well, too. It was a very good company to work for if you were willing to work hard and not complain about the hours you sometimes had to put in. The company's founder emphasized that working hard was not negotiable. They had the processes in place to make people work hard, and they certainly made history. They changed the way people buy things online and transformed the retail world.
When people work hard together as one team, they can change history. There is no question about that. But the third part of the motto was especially interesting: “Have fun.” Having fun is a choice you make. Nobody else can make you happy or have fun for you. I often thought about that when I went to work on hot days or during difficult times. I reminded myself that it was a choice. I had chosen to work there. There was a lot to do, and the company was making history, but I still had to decide whether I would be happy.
That is something each of us must decide. If you are miserable all the time, perhaps you need to reconsider whether you belong in that environment. Even in a stressful workplace, many people are happy because they find meaning in what they do and appreciate the way the company takes care of them. Having fun is a personal choice. The same principle applies to our lives.
We live in a difficult world. I do not have to tell you that. It is a broken world, and everywhere we turn, we see broken systems. We complain that the government is broken, healthcare is broken, traffic is broken, and everything else seems broken. Do you know why? Because we created these systems, and we are a group of broken people. Broken people can create only broken systems. We may continue to complain, as human beings often do, but beyond our complaints, we can choose to be happy even in the midst of this brokenness.
Our lives have hills and valleys, good times and bad times. When painful times come, I sometimes forget the good times and begin complaining. But shouldn't those good times we experienced in the past be reasons for gratitude? We did not deserve the bad times, but did we really deserve the good times, either? What did we do to earn them? Nothing.
Life itself is a gift given to us. Every day is a gift. Every moment is a gift. We did not choose to be here in this world; life was given to us. So let us make the best use of it and be happy. No one else can make you happy. Happiness comes to people who live meaningful lives. If you ask me, I would call happiness a bonus—a surprising bonus God gives us.
It is up to us to receive it. Just as God gives us the gift of salvation, He gives us life with opportunities to experience happiness. He has promised to provide what we need, and He does provide for us.
Doesn't He give us the air we breathe? Did anyone work to earn it? Imagine having to pay for every gallon of air you breathe each day! We sometimes pay for water because of the treatment and distribution involved, but the gift of water ultimately comes from God.
Everything around us that we enjoy in this life is a gift. Look at the animals and the birds. They enjoy what they can find. A deer comes and eats whatever plants are available, whether vegetables or wild shrubs. It eats what is before it. That is its world, and it enjoys what it has.
This is our world, too.
Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air.” They do not worry about tomorrow. Yet we worry about tomorrow as though it belongs to us and is completely under our control. Tomorrow is ours only if God allows us to be here tomorrow. So why do we spend so much time worrying about it? Let us be grateful for today and find happiness in the day God has given us.
That is what the author of Ecclesiastes is teaching us. There is nothing better for people than to be happy, to do good while they live, and to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in their work. These things are gifts from God. Happiness is a bonus from God. Let us receive it, experience it, and make room for it in our lives.
There is a story about a little boy who asked his father, “Dad, what makes you happy?” If someone asked me that question on the spot, I might struggle to answer it, too. The father thought about it and said, “That is a good question.” Then the child said, “Well, I know what makes me happy. I'm happy when you get home every day after work.” What a simple answer!
Can we find that kind of happiness in the simple moments of our lives? There are so many ordinary moments we can be happy about, but sometimes we do not take them seriously enough. We miss them.A child can find happiness in something that costs nothing. The child is happy simply because of the father's presence.
God gives us simple moments like that every day. We make happiness far more complicated than it needs to be. We think happiness comes when we get something, achieve something, buy something, travel somewhere, solve a difficult problem, or finally see everything fall into place according to our plans.
I used to tell my wife whether I was happy after coming home from work. If I got all green lights on my way to work, I would be happy that day. I rarely experienced that during the five years I worked at a location where I counted about 42 traffic lights. Usually, I seemed to get all 42 red lights! If I counted the lights, I would become miserable before the day had even begun. Eventually, I stopped counting them. Of course, there were days when I got most of the lights green, too. These are simple moments in our lives for which we can thank God.
We often think happiness comes from achieving or acquiring something. But the Bible gives us another perspective. Happiness is a gift of God, a bonus in our lives. Happiness is something all of us want, yet sometimes we feel guilty talking about it. It is a little like money. We need money, but we do not always like to talk about it.
Money is not necessarily a bad thing. We can run a church with money, but if we run the church on money alone, where is God? Money can become our god if we allow it to take God's place.
In the same way, do not mistake happiness for God. God is the One who gives us happiness. Always follow Him. Make time to meditate on His Word and pray, not only for yourself but also for others. It is a privilege to pray for others, and a meaningful life of faith and service is one way we experience the joy God gives us.
Happiness is not the purpose of life. It is one of God's surprising bonuses along the journey of life.
If I make happiness my purpose in life, I will become frustrated because life will continually interrupt my happiness. But if I make knowing God, loving people, serving others, and living a faithful and fruitful life my purpose, happiness comes to me along the way.
I can receive happiness with gratitude when God brings it into my life.
There is a difference between suffering and misery. Suffering comes to us, but we can make misery out of it by the way we respond. Do not allow suffering to turn you into a miserable person. God has promised to be with us in our suffering. He knows what we are going through, and He will be there with us.
The world often tells us, “Do whatever makes you happy.” We may even say that to our children. But that is the world's understanding of happiness: do whatever you like.
Scripture gives us a different perspective. Know God and receive the joy He gives you along the way. Happiness is not about doing everything you want to do. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Jesus also taught us to consider the value of our souls. What good is it to gain everything in this world if we lose our souls? Our souls are more important than anything we can acquire or enjoy.
There is sickness, death, disappointment, relationship problems, prayer concerns, financial difficulties, and so many other challenges in this world. There may be people sitting here today carrying burdens that nobody else knows about. Someone may be smiling on the outside while crying on the inside.
The Bible does not teach that suffering will never come. Jesus said that we would have trouble, but He also told us not to be afraid because He has overcome the world.
We follow Jesus Christ, the One who has overcome the world. Through Him, we are overcomers. No matter what problems we face, we are people of faith who can stand firm when the challenges of this world come against us.
David cried out to God throughout many of the psalms. Paul was beaten and endured tremendous suffering. Job and many other heroes of the Bible did not have easy lives. Yet they found joy, peace, and comfort in the presence of God.
They did not make happiness the purpose and goal of their lives. David expressed his desire to behold the beauty of the Lord and dwell in His presence. If that becomes our goal, happiness will come to us.
There is a calming peace that comes into our lives when we make God our destination. God is our purpose. God's presence is the purpose of our lives. Happiness is not the goal; happiness is a bonus God gives us.
Jesus told a parable in the Gospel of Luke about a man whose land produced an abundant harvest. Looking at all he had gathered, the man said that he had plenty stored up for many years. He decided that he would eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
We do not have to make happiness our goal in order to experience it. We can pursue God, love others, care for people, and appreciate the creation around us. We can love anyone and everyone. We can live faithfully, and somewhere along the way, happiness will show up.
That is why I call happiness a surprising bonus.
Consider another person in the Bible: Zacchaeus, the short, wealthy tax collector. He was a rich man, yet something was missing from his life.
Can you imagine a wealthy billionaire climbing a tree just to see someone important passing by? You do not see that every day! But that is what Zacchaeus did when Jesus was passing through. Because he was short and the crowd blocked his view, he climbed a tree to see Jesus. He may have thought that nobody would notice him.
He was wealthy, but his wealth had not made him happy. He wanted to see Jesus and be close to Him.
But Jesus saw him. He came to the tree, looked up, and said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” I imagine Zacchaeus may have felt embarrassed, but the Bible tells us that he came down gladly and welcomed Jesus into his home.
What was his problem? Perhaps all his life he had believed that making money would make him happy. One day, he discovered that wealth alone could not satisfy him.
There is a familiar story about a wealthy man being asked what his goal would be after earning his first million. His answer was, “The next million.”
If that is our goal, we will never reach it. The goal keeps moving farther away.
But Jesus knows you. He knows every one of us and the situations we face in life. He calls us to come down from whatever we are climbing in pursuit of happiness and invites us into a relationship with Him.
Zacchaeus became a changed man.
He was a tax collector who had cheated people. But when Jesus came into his life and became the center of his purpose, Zacchaeus became joyful. He declared that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and repay fourfold anyone he had defrauded.
That is when happiness came into his life.
So, as I said earlier, do not make happiness the goal of your life. Even though the Declaration of Independence speaks of the pursuit of happiness, we must understand that lasting happiness comes as we live meaningful lives centered on God.
Zacchaeus not only found Jesus; he found forgiveness, acceptance, purpose, and a new relationship with God. I am sure his life was never the same again. That is what happiness is about.
Sometimes we look for happiness in the wrong places. We think it will come from a bigger house, a new car, a better vacation, more money, a better job, a different relationship, greater recognition, or more success.
Think about each of those things.
We go on vacation and feel happy while we are away. But eventually, the day comes when we have to return home. The mailbox will be full. I usually tell people to leave the mail alone for a couple more days because it is probably all bills anyway!
We have to pay for the things we enjoyed during our vacation. These pleasures are temporary. I am not saying that we should not enjoy them. We should enjoy every good moment we can. But we must not make these things our ultimate goal or destination, believing that they will make us happy ever after.
There are two tragedies in life, according to a poem I learned in college. One is not getting the things you want. The other is getting them.
Think about that.
Have you ever seen a dog chasing its tail? It runs around in circles, becoming more and more worked up, yet it never seems to stop. What happens if the dog finally catches its tail? It may bite it and hurt itself.
That is what can happen when we chase after things that do not ultimately satisfy us. We run in circles after money, fame, recognition, and success. These things are fleeting.
One day you may be president, and the next day you are an ex-president. We have former spouses, former positions, and former titles. Many things that seem so important today will eventually pass away.
Do not make these things the purpose of your life.
Saint Augustine famously said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. That is where we find peace, joy, and lasting happiness.
So take the moments God gives you. Enjoy the ordinary moments, the little things, and the simple blessings of life. Be happy.
Even when trouble and pain come, remember that better moments may still be ahead. Let me share an illustration that helps us remember this truth.
A woman nearing the end of her life gave her loved ones an unusual instruction. When they carried her casket, she wanted her arms positioned so that a fork would be in her hand. Her family was puzzled. Why would she want a fork in her hand?
She explained that her mother had always told her, “Hold on to your fork.”
When you are sitting at the dinner table and finishing your meal, someone may say, “Hold on to your fork.” Do you know what that means? Dessert is coming!
Her mother had taught her to remember that the best part might still be ahead. As this woman approached the end of her earthly life, she wanted people to know that she was going to a better place. She knew where she was going, and she wanted her fork to remind everyone that something wonderful was still to come.
Let us also hold on to our forks. We are people of hope because we have a destination toward which we are heading.
We are pilgrims in this world, journeying toward our heavenly home. As the book The Pilgrim's Progress reminds us, our lives are a journey toward a promised destination. We may not know exactly what everything will be like when we arrive, but we know who is waiting for us: our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
That is our happiness.
May the good Lord bless these words to our hearts as we go from this place. Amen.
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