To understand correctly what happiness is, let us first understand what happiness is not. It is difficult to change old stereotypes and difficult to begin believing in something we are not accustomed to. Yet there are laws of happiness that overturn all these ideas, sweep away unstable values, and build something solid, compelling, and multifaceted. Christ's Sermon on the Mount completely upended the thinking of those who heard it at that time. All their values collapsed in an instant. Before the eyes of people accustomed to living within the prisons of their own ideas, new and boundless expanses of Eternity opened up, together with its principles. They were astonished by the simplicity and depth of this new light.
There are commonly accepted forms of temporary comfort in everyday life that people call happiness.
1. everyday happiness.
We know that family, children, raising children, home life, acquaintances, friends, and a good job—all of this is everyday happiness because it creates a measure of comfort in this world. People who start families and approach this decision wisely want a home of their own, a home that is cozy, where they can invite others or simply enjoy spending time themselves. A family truly is an oasis in the desert of sin. But everyday happiness is conditional. If something intrudes into this little paradise—if some misfortune or problem comes—then all that happiness collapses in an instant. If one spouse suddenly leaves, becomes unfaithful, or dies, emptiness comes. The couple may have seemed happy, yet in a single moment they become profoundly unhappy. This means that something is wrong with this kind of happiness: it is not entirely sound or lasting.
2. sudden happiness.
Do you know people who have suddenly won something? Perhaps you have never met them personally, but at some point you have seen stories about them in the news or in movies. The plot is always the same. Someone receives a prize and is happy; that person's eyes are shining. We are led to believe that this is true happiness.
Are you happy when you receive gifts? We also love giving them. But people remain happy only until the next gift, until the gift breaks, or perhaps for five minutes before returning to ordinary life. Much depends on how a person was raised, but this happiness, too, is temporary and conditional.
Someone wins a million in the lottery and is happy. But then problems begin: how to collect the money, how to spend it, and how to keep it. The person loses peace of mind.
I asked my coworkers what they needed in order to be happy. What would they like to have? How did they understand this state? One of them said he needed two million. I asked him, “Suppose we gave you thirty-two million euros. What would you do with it? You would probably give me something, since you became rich so quickly, wouldn't you?” He said he would give me two million. (It is easy to give away what you do not have.) But when I asked what he would do with the rest of the money, he could not answer. He did not even know. He could not imagine having that much money in his bank account. He was accustomed to earning just a little, and that was all; his thinking could not reach beyond that. Easy money does not bring happiness. If you examine the statistics concerning major lottery winners, you see a pattern: families are broken, most winners lose everything they won within a very short time, some go into debt, and some take their own lives. The statistics are deeply troubling. Emptiness. Yet for some reason, many people want to become rich quickly in this way so that they can be “happy” and independent.
3. emotional happiness.
This can mean, for example, creating a situation that produces a rush of adrenaline: extreme sports, skiing, skydiving, and so on.
I have gone skydiving. After our first jump, my friends and I were so excited and happy as we drove away from the field where we had jumped. We shared our experiences with one another and talked about how wonderful it had felt. In our own way, we were happy. But I think that if one of us had broken a leg, he would not have been happy that he had gone skydiving. That happiness would have ended very quickly. It is the same with a skier: after skiing down the mountain, he is happy. But if he crashes into a rock, breaks a bone, and then spends six months in the hospital, I do not think he will look back with joy on how wonderful it felt. His only regret would be, “Why did I ever feel the need to go up that mountain? What was I doing there?” Unfortunately, for many people, understanding comes too late.
Other sports can also be included in this category. Every victory creates an illusion of happiness, and we long always to remain at the top. But our victories are of another kind—the victories that overcome the world: our faith. People do not understand this.
Drug use, alcoholism, and other addictions also belong to the realm of emotional experience. They bring temporary enjoyment and pleasure. While people are in that state, they may experience something they perceive as happiness, but it is very short-lived. Sexual pleasure can be included here as well. People crave it and think that it is the meaning of life. Not only that, but afterward they go and tell others how wonderful it all is, and they seek a new victim and new adventures. Then everything collapses, becomes tiresome, or leaves them wanting more. Life loses its meaning; people become ill, lose their sanity, and die. How attractively all of this is portrayed in movies! It appears to have special significance and to bring happiness. It has become a normal social phenomenon. Consider sexual minorities, same-sex relationships, and sexual perversions. All of this is now being imposed on us as something that brings happiness and meaning, while the Bible calls it an abomination. Of all addictions, sexual addiction is the most dangerous and extreme. From the history of fallen empires, we see that sexual immorality was the final drop that filled the cup of God's wrath, after which those corrupt nations disappeared from history.
4. spiritual happiness.
For example, a person listens to spiritual music, watches old movies, television shows, and programs, reads books and novels, plays games, or studies something interesting. In a certain sense, that person is happy because of the emotional response these things awaken. Why are such things so popular today? Because they fill life with something that is missing—something a person needs, such as nostalgia for earlier times, when everything seemed different from the way it is today.
The world wants to listen to songs from years gone by and return in memory to youth. People want something spiritual and familiar, something that feels like home. That need remains unmet in the modern world. We are made in such a way that music has a special influence on us, and we do not tire of listening to it. But this is not true happiness.
This list could be expanded. Some people seek happiness by acquiring new things—cars, houses, clothing, and pleasures—while others travel around the world in order to be happy. I call all of these things “bottomless vessels.” King Solomon tried them and wrote that everything is vanity, the very height of vanity. In other words, emptiness. Our world is arranged this way and lives according to its prevailing laws. Everyone strives for these things: people travel to the ends of the earth and spend millions and billions of their euros, dollars, and rubles in order to obtain the peace that is offered freely, and to find the meaning of life and existence that is offered to us at no cost.
Yet happiness is so near and so accessible! And it is real for everyone who tastes it. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Call to Him, and He will show us great and inaccessible things that we do not know.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Job 30:15; Proverbs 12:7; 15:15; Ecclesiastes 7:14; Malachi 3:15; Proverbs 8:30–32; 1 Corinthians 15:19