Blessed are the Happy(?)

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope."-Paul, To the Thessalonians (1.4.13)
"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."-Paul, To the Romans (12.15)

I read an excellent article written by Sharon Begley entitled Happiness: Enough Already. The writer examines the modern premise that sadness is being considered a mental disorder. She states, "What society once viewed as an appropriate reaction to failed hopes and dashed dreams, it now regards as a psychiatric illness." She believes that a "happiness industry" exists in our culture evidenced by hundreds of self-help books, magazine articles, life coaches, motivational speakers, pharmaceutical ads, etc.

"Although some 85 percent of Americans say they're pretty happy," she writes, "the happiness industry sends the insistent message that moderate levels of well-being aren't enough: not only can we all be happier, but we practically have a duty to be so. What was once considered normal sadness is something to be smothered, even shunned."

Sadness, remorse, guilt, grief, and other negative emotions have been taboo for some time, even in church. The warnings in Scripture that evil behavior has negative, eternal consequences are also out of vogue. I remember when I was preaching on the Devil and Hell last fall. Several articles I read talked about how big-time preachers were avoiding those topics all together. There was no room in the church for repentance, sin, accountability, or anything else that might detract from people's happiness.
This present thinking about the requirement of ever-present extreme happiness is one reason Christians need to understand what biblical joy is. For many in the church, joy is equal to happiness. One brother once grew very upset with me when I said that happiness was not part of God's obligation to us. He thought I was saying Christians should run around with mopey faces all the time.

In the Scriptures above and several others, it is clear that life entails a certain amount of sorrow and mourning. Jesus said that in this world we would have trouble. Sometimes we create it. Sometimes we suffer the creations of others. However, our grieving, sorrow, and mourning are tempered by joy. Joy is an attitude, a way of looking at things. Joy is a filter or a particular lens. It is shaped by an understanding or belief that Jesus has overcome the world, the world is not the way it was meant to be but will soon become what it was meant to be, and that we are a part of the new world. There are other things that help form joy, but those are the Big Three.
In the several studies the author mentioned, researchers have found that the people who are completely happy (nine or ten on a scale of 1-10) were actually less successful than people who typically scored an eight. It seems as though a certain amount of unhappiness inspires great thinking, great movements, and great works. Perhaps a certain amount of unhappiness inspires great faith as well.

Unhappiness and happiness depends partially upon what happens and partially on what you think about what happened. Joy can keep you from experiencing a lot of unhappiness, but still works even when you are unhappy. But unhappiness is not a mental disease, something to be medicated, or something to be shunned. Like pain, unhappiness tells us something is wrong. It may be telling us that we need to change our thinking, attitudes, expectations, or behavior. It may also be telling us that we're human, and we get sad when we experience the fallenness of our world.

~Shawn