My search for happiness is an up and down journey. There are moments when I feel happy and content. They are but brief moments. The rest of the time, I am left feeling lost, incomplete...lacking. Why does it have to be one way or the other?
In my devotional this morning, Max Lucado says "God graces us with dissatisfaction..." He graces us..He gives us....He allows dissatisfaction to occur in our lives? Why? We are not happy here because we are not SUPPOSED to be happy here! This is not our home.
"Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world...” (John 18:36 NIV)
Why would God create us and place us in a world where we are never going to be happy? As a parent, I want my child to be happy...why wouldn't my Heavenly Father want that for me?
I believe God DOES want us to be happy, but knows that happiness and more will come to us when we reach His kingdom. Our goal in this life is to catch glimpses of that happiness beyond measure and to cultivate our hunger for that happiness. When we realize that happiness can be ours in heaven one day, then we spend our remaining time here on earth getting to know the provider of that heavenly happiness.
Searching for happiness here on earth is pointless without putting God in the center of that search. If we could find the happiness we long for here on earth, we wouldn't need God. God knows that and allows our unhappiness and discontent so we keep searching.
Thinking about it that way makes my times of unhappiness and discontent more bearable.
I am but a visitor in this land. My time here can be filled with joy, pain, delight and dispair. But, once my journey in this land is through and I reach my real, true home...I will find the elusive happiness that comes from being home sweet home.
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