Forever Happy
BY STEPH NERES
There is a love-hate relationship with the self. We want to feel calmness and quietness of the soul, but we hate having to deal with our feelings and thoughts, we hate even to have them. Do you know that some people wish they were robots? Yes! Some people wish that they didn’t have freewill-they wish someone else was taking care of them and make their decisions for them. But the same people also hate the numbness of the heart.
I am the type of person who would randomly go for a walk…seeking a way to escape for a moment. I am the type to go for a drive at night to experience the night sky, I randomly go to remote places to find myself--to deal with my thoughts and be a natural human being without all the artificiality of this life. I enjoy knowing that I can feel the wind and what it does to the hair on my skin, I long to hear the birds sing, to be able to breathe fresh air, and watch lizards and chipmunks play. Haven’t you ever done those things? Trying to find inner peace...
I remember a professor once said that he rather lived among deer, they are better than humans. I pondered so often on this phrase and I would recollect his comments and then suddenly, I realized that he loved being with himself in nature. But why? Why would anyone want to be alone?
We long to have passion and glee, we long to feel love but little do we realize that to feel joy and happiness in this life, we must also accept to feel the pain and suffering of it. We go on covering up the feelings of sadness and emptiness with Snapchat, Worldstar, Facebook, and sometimes even with drugs. So, we run, and we run and hide from our feelings, we go on covering and we lose the essence of being human beings. Soon enough, we find ourselves fighting to get out of depression. And even while depressed, we suppress all that we feel with medications…we are still stuck! We then realize that life is vanity. “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity” … (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2) there is no way that life can be…. THIS. You can take a risk and fall in love, then that person breaks your heart, you can take a risk of giving yourself to others only to find out that they talk bad behind your back and they plot your downfall. But it is even more exhausting to be the one who avoids pouring your heart out. We end up thinking that the reason for our problems are people. While I agree that some company can be toxic, I cannot also neglect the fact that most of our problems is our own selves. We become self-centered without realizing that we are part of the problem. So, I pose the question: what is it that we want or rather what do we need?
I have
asked a few people about this and the popular answers were: Happiness and Peace
of mind. So, I ask you who is seeing this and nodding your head: How can you
attain happiness or peace of mind? You have no idea, do you? You may think you
do but if you review your game plan right now, you will see the flaws in it. And
if you did know how to be happy, you would have achieved happiness already. Many
eastern religions and cultures have made this a primary focus and for this
reason many are flocking to them including yoga. We are looking for the formula
to bring happiness and peace out of ourselves.
There is but one problem. True happiness and peace is not within but
without. If it was within, those who resolved to living alone and seek shelter
in the woods/monasteries would have stayed alone, we need one another. Then,
why do we have such a hard time being joyful? So, I researched and contemplated
on the experiences of others and I realized that the one thing every unhappy
person has in common is the lack of God in their life. You read it right…You
may say that there are many religious people that are unhappy and you are
right. There are many who profess godliness but deny the power thereof
(2 Timothy 3:5). We have a difficult time being joyful because we cannot see the end
of the tunnel, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We are obsessed with being
able to control our emotions and situations (present and future). The truth is
that we can’t, we cannot do anything of our own strength. There is only one thing
we can do...and that is choosing to trust Jesus Christ. One thing I have learned as a
Christian is that faith is essential. Without faith, this sin-filled world
would cause us to wipe our own selves out. What if I told you that in the amid all these things lies your happiness? (1 Kings 19:11-12)
I will
tell you a secret. The reason why you’re not happy right now is because you are
seeking joy in your circumstances or you are trying to have it without trusting in God. Joy is a state of mind. We seek to improve
our lives, get things we like-hoping to be happier. Here are two simple keys in
being Happy: First, seek to live only for God (Matthew 6:33). Second, don’t
live for yourself but live for others (Philippians
2:3-6, Mark
12:28-31). Joy can be found only in God. Seek Him daily in prayer and supplication (Philippians 4:6) and your well will never run dry. Look below for some comforting verses when you are having difficulties. But, always remember…Joy is not a circumstance but it is a state of being and the only way we can be joyful is when we trust in Jesus Christ.
Psalms 28:7
1 Chronicles 16:27
Psalms 34:8
Psalms 16:11
Psalms 19:8
Psalms 1:1-3
Romans 15:13
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