Bazaar United Methodist Church

Bazaar, Kansas

Sermon Text
Ecclesiastes 3:12

The Question of Happiness

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. Ecclesiastes 3:12

I know that happiness may seem a very strange topic for Lent when we usually talk about prayer and self-denial. But it seemed to me that people are stuck right now in a place where they are living in a constant state of fear or worry. The economy has people worried. If they aren't worried about whether their retirement savings will still keep them until they die, they are worried about their children. Will they keep their jobs? Or we are worried about our own finances, our own jobs, our own abilities to weather the current financial storm. So it seemed appropriate to me to do a series during Lent on happiness; to talk about what it is and what it is not. To help us understand that God desires for us to be happy, content and fulfilled in life and that our outward circumstances do not have to have a great deal to do with that inward state of happiness.

The author of Ecclesiastes says, "I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live." He agrees with modern psychologists who now tell us that "Happiness is a cornerstone of psychological wealth. . .It is when we are feeling positive and energized that we often make the largest gains; we think of new ideas, take up new hobbies, tend to our relationships, maintain our health, and find meaning in life."

The problem is, most of us don't know how to be happy or how to stay happy. We think that more money will make us happy or we think that things will make us happy. But we have already found the fallacy in that in our lives. Everybody seems to think that about 10% more income would take care of their finances. It doesn't matter whether they make $20,000. or $200,000. Just 10% more would take care of it. It just isn't so. Most of us have had a raise and found that the money is easily just eaten away. It simply disappears. So just a little more money will not make us happier.

Neither will having something we really want. Just think about the last thing that you wanted and purchased. Whether it was a TV or clothes, a boat or tickets, a house or car. It may have brought temporary pleasure but it will never bring lasting happiness. Things cannot make us happy; because there will always be something else tempting us to want more. Desire, unchecked, leads to greed.

Think of the story of David and Bathsheba. Here is David, King of Israel with wives, concubines and many children. He has it all. But he wanders out on his balcony one day and desires someone he cannot have. So he wants her all the more. And what does it lead to? Adultery, deception, and eventually murder because Bathsheba's husband Uriah refuses to sleep with his wife, while his companions are on the battle field. (2 Samuel 11) David had everything. But he was still tempted to want more. And we are just like him. We will always be tempted to want more.

So what are we to do about such a quandary? We need to learn to appreciate what we have. The antidote to greed is contentment. Paul says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Philippians 4:12) So how do we get there?

The first thing we do is we practice the art of gratitude. An attitude of gratitude helps us live happy lives. Wanting and appreciating what we have is the first step toward contentment. I will never forget when Christopher Reeve was first paralyzed. He went into a deep depression. Who wouldn't? But he came out of it, truly Superman. A man who knew what it was to be content with what he had. He was able to be a brilliant spokesman for persons with spinal cord injuries. That mattered to me because my nephew, Matt had a broken neck, a spinal cord injury. Reeve wrote, acted, and directed films. His remake of Hitchcock's "Rear Window" was every bit as good and scary as the original.

So every night before you go to bed, write down and say out loud at least five things that you are grateful for that day. Will you repeat things on your list? Yes, of course, you will if you do this exercise daily. But at least you will be reminded that you are thankful for them rather than taking them for granted.

Happiness is not so much a state that is achieved once and for all and then we have it, get to keep it and never leave it. Happiness is more of a process than a place.

And while I said that we were going to focus more on happiness and less on self-denial during Lent this year, there is one thing that I would like all of us to "give up." I want us to practice the discipline of giving up our whining and complaining this year. Now that means within reasonable limits. It doesn't mean that you don't tell your physician the truth about how you feel, what hurts, etc. It just means that we don't have to complain about everything to everyone. The fact is; the less we talk about the negatives in our lives, the less important they become. Similarly, the more we recognize our blessings and verbalize those things we are thankful for, the more important they become in our lives. We no longer take them for granted. We don't accept them as our daily due.

I have a tendency to complain that I use two nasal sprays and take four different medicines just to breathe and that those medicines make my mouth dry. Instead I should be thanking God that I was born at a time when medicine is advanced enough and physicians know what will help me breathe. Do you see what I mean? All of us have things we can complain about. But is it really necessary? Or are we just whining? Whining does not really make us happy. In fact it tends to drag us down and take others with us.

Have you ever noticed how a group can be pretty upbeat but as soon as a negative element is introduced, the entire group turns toward negativity? It is just that easy. And returning to the positive is very difficult. So when a negative thought comes to mind we need to remind ourselves, "No, I chose to give that up for Lent." Now if you are with a group of people who are being negative, you may have to tell them that you gave up grumbling for Lent, so if they are going to be negative you will probably have to leave so you don't break you Lenten pledge. It may help them to recognize what they are doing; to recognize their own negativity as well. And the fact is you may actually have to leave a group or two.

Giving up negativity and practicing gratitude are two activities that are sure to improve our happiness quotient. They will help us feel better about who we are and how we are doing. Consistently practicing these skills over the next six weeks will definitely increase our level of overall happiness. And if we actually practice them daily for six weeks they will have become habits for us.

When Jesus talked about us having abundant life, (John 10:10) this is what he meant. He certainly wasn't talking about the abundance of our possessions or the abundance of our monetary resources. He was talking about our internal resources, the resources that bring us happiness. The first of these is the giving up of negativity and the practice of gratitude. It is a practice that has to do with a mind-set. We need the mind of Christ. Paul tells us, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2) We renew our mind by just such practices as these.

Do you think that Christopher Reeve really wanted to live the rest of his life in a wheelchair? Wouldn't he have preferred to have been still active? Still riding horses? Still actively playing with his children? Of course he would. But when tragedy struck, he chose to make the most of his life. He chose not to wallow in self-pity. He chose abundant life. It was a mind-set. He realized that he was not brain damaged. His thought processes still allowed him to do much. He could speak and write. He could direct and produce. He could be a positive influence in the lives of victims of accidents who thought their lives were over because of their paralysis. He could show them that it just was not so.

You and I have much to be thankful for and little, really, to complain about. We need to practice gratitude and give up our pity parties and complaints. We need to celebrate life and grant grace, to live abundantly. We cannot do that while we burden ourselves with a bag of complaints that we drag with us wherever we go. Many of us have been dragging stuff with us for years. Stuff from our childhood. Stuff from former marriages. Stuff from former jobs. Anger and resentment and hurt and aches and pains and perceived slights. I hope you wrote all of that stuff down on your paper. If not, now is the time to do it. Because in just a minute we're going to take all of those weights of the past and we're going to throw them away in the heavy bag of the past and we're going to leave them there. All the things we have to complain about, we're going to get rid of in this bag. And we're going to leave them there so that giving up complaining is easier for us because we will have chosen to set aside our complaints, to give them over to Christ Jesus and to leave them in his hands.

That will set us free to practice gratitude every day; to give thanks for a wide variety of people and things for which we are grateful; ones we tend to take for granted but that we would genuinely miss if we did not have them. Proverbs 17:22 says, A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. So this Lent, let's practice having a joyful heart. Amen.