The path of love leads me to the land of happiness. The land of happiness is a place here on earth where loving hearts, saddened by reality, find their way, and where the human nature that longs to give finds rest. This land lies at the feet of Jesus. There my soul bows down to become one with the One Who is the Source of happiness and love.
It is a very exclusive community, and not everyone can endure its atmosphere of peace, joy, and rest in Christ Jesus. The mind is focused on the happiness of others, while great ideas are considered about how to make those you love happy and how to fill their lives with joy, friendship, and love. At times it is physically impossible to reach everyone, so you have to choose particular people and test how open their hearts are, gently placing within them truths about love and joy in Jesus. Not everyone wants to be happy, even though people wish happiness for one another. And when happiness comes and knocks at the door, those who hear that voice sometimes have no desire to open the door and let Him in. People are afraid to be themselves and, at the same time, to look happy.
The most common activity in the Kingdom of Heaven will be the deliberate planning of ways to make happy those who surround you, those you meet, and those who know and love you. Every thought and intention will be directed toward making those around you completely happy. I believe it is worth beginning to plan for this now, so that in Eternity we will have some experience for reaching new, boundless territories.
Love cannot think any other way! It leads everything toward the goal of making everyone nearby happy. And if not everyone wants this, love searches for a way forward and develops new approaches, new points of connection, and new ways to exert a positive influence.
Life passes very quickly, and in the pursuit of possessions, knowledge, and comfort, I may lose what matters most—love for my neighbor. Happiness is a science for the soul, with its own laws and spheres of influence. It is life in abundance, overflowing with good thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
Unfortunately, we have no institutes devoted to happiness, and our schools offer no classes on how to attain it. Yet everyone pursues it, often without understanding what it is.
I, too, often think about developing this endeavor and plan all kinds of strategies that I try to put into practice in my life. I have noticed that as soon as I begin planning some extraordinary way to make someone happy—even when I have no idea how it could be carried out—I myself become very happy simply because I am thinking about the happiness of others. The deeper the plan and the more complex the strategy, the more joy and delight it brings me amid my busy life. Sometimes I feel so full of joy that I have to let out all kinds of joyful exclamations just to calm my emotions a little.
And I think: if it is possible to be happy now, while surrounded by evil, what will happen to us when sin is gone and we are surrounded by people who need our love and who give us theirs? Wonders! We will need strength from above to keep our emotions within the bounds of propriety and to keep from rushing at everyone we meet with our humble desire to bring them happiness.
The Lord Jesus is the Author of happiness, and without Him it is impossible to possess the perfect and pure mind of a blessed person. He is a Man, and He knows how our minds are made and understands how to teach me this science.
Even after I have been taught, I do not rest on what I have achieved. Instead, I devise new ways and strategies for gaining citizens for the land of Happiness and Love.
The only serious obstacle in this campaign is a person's free will, because a person may simply be unprepared for such advances and may not want such changes. To attain complete happiness in this life, one must believe that happiness exists and that it has come into one's life. Everything that brings death and misery must be left behind completely, and not many people agree to such changes.
As a working professional, I seek knowledge that will help me better understand business strategy and the management of cash flow. I have noticed a definite pattern: the better you understand these things, the easier it is to find your way in them and make plans. But the world of money is an entirely different country, with laws of its own that differ from those in the Land of Happiness in Jesus. The two appear very similar, and people sometimes confuse them, attributing to each qualities that do not belong to it. They personify money and begin serving it as if it were a living being.
I often face the choice of what knowledge should fill my mind and how to reconcile what cannot be reconciled. I choose happiness, peace, joy, love, and friendship. We are not of this world. Sometimes I feel a little awkward around influential people in our society because these worldly values do not interest me enough to devote my entire life to them. At the same time, I feel sorry for such people, because they have chosen the world and rejected immortality and true happiness.
Yet we still need food, so we have to work with our hands and minds simply to live amid all this busyness and provide for our needs.
We are living just before the end of earth's sinful history. The final events will soon unfold, and from prophecy we know that everything will revolve around money, which will be one of the vital resources for sustaining human life. But God will give His protection and provision to those who have chosen the narrow path to the land of Happiness—those who believe in Jesus, have a close relationship with Him, and learn love, friendliness, and happiness from Him.
The Lord set Himself in opposition to mammon and placed service to Himself and service to wealth in two opposing camps.
The camp of Jesus offers righteousness, truth, love, peace, joy, hope, salvation, friendship, and an abundance of happiness for the soul.
And what does mammon offer? Everything that will be given over to fire and left behind after you as a reminder to future generations that death is inevitable and that nothing you acquire can be taken into the grave.
As you consider the advantages of a happy life, you find yourself facing the choice of whom you will serve.
I am not saying that only poor people can be happy. I maintain that, in the hands of happy wealthy people, money becomes a means by which they can do good, ease the suffering of others, respond to their needs, and support projects, thereby helping to save deceived souls.
Jesus taught that what is impossible with man is possible with God, and through the example of Zacchaeus the tax collector, He showed how this happens.
The Lord is coming! And who can stand?
I believe happy people will be filled with joy as they meet their Savior and accept His invitation to inherit the Eternal Kingdom of peace, love, and happiness.
Happinessology. You will not find this term anywhere else. But in our school, we will introduce the science of happiness as a field of study. It is a science worth learning and understanding. Happiness has its own laws. They apply equally to everyone. Even if I cannot become happy on my own, I can learn to be happy—and I will be. If you believe this is impossible and have no intention of changing anything, I feel very sorry for you. Being happy is God's plan for the children of God who are living in the last days.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Psalm 1:1; Matthew 5:3–12; Job 5:17; Psalm 16:11; 32:2; 33:12; 34:8; 40:4; James 1:12