Fighting for happiness

You know I've been thinking the last few days about what it takes to be truly happy. What does it mean to be happy? What does it feel like to be really content? I looked up the word 'happy' in my Australian Oxford Dictionary and this is the definition it gave:

"lucky, fortunate; content; indicating state of excitement, nervousness, recklessness..."

I know people who are just unhappy people. Young and old...people who are just so unhappy and find so much to complain about that they forget about the things that make them happy. They complain their life away! I think it's really sad. So, what makes people happy? I mean, what does it take to be TRULY happy?

Some people would say...a life partner. Hey, I put my hand up to that! Yes, I would LOVE a life partner...or atleast that it's revealed to me if Im after the right one at the moment or not...or its revealed to him that I am the right one... haha...But, is he going to be all that will complete me and make me truly and totally happy? Yes, he would make me happy...he already does...so if we got together ofcourse he'd make me happy...I'd feel more complete if I had him in my life!! I believe he would do that for me! But, he wouldn't be ALL that I need in my life to COMPLETE me and make me totally happy and content.

Other people say that money makes you happy. Money makes the world go round and if you have enough of it then you're truly happy. Heck, some people even believe that to have material blessings means that you're truly blessed and complete. Let me remind you of a few people. Let's talk about Michael Jackson. A man who seemingly had it all...fame, money, all that the world could buy him. But where has he ended up. Bankrupt and despised by nations of people. Inside I'm sure that he is screaming because of the issues he has and yet money didn't fix a thing. Money didn't complete him. Matthew Perry...playing Chandler in Friends, possibly the most successful sitcom ever, alongside Seinfield...still didn't make him happy earning millions and millions of dollars and he's been in and out of rehab trying to kick drugs and alcohol. All that money could buy him didn't make him happy. Why do we focus so much time and effort on money. It's not going to last. What if we lose it all? If that's what we rely on to make us happy then we're stuffed...money comes and goes. We can't take it with us when we die. What good is it? It has no eternal rewards.

Then there are those who think that being thin, beautiful and popular makes them happy. Alot of you may not know Judy Garland...Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz...I'm a big fan!! I know I know I'm old fashioned...HAHA...and proud of it! But, I discovered something about Judy Garland this year that really made me feel sad...being the avid fan that I am. Judy Garland lived a terrible life. From about the age of 12 she was a star, singing and acting. She was the most sought after child star for years. But from the start she was told she wasn't thin enough...at 12years old. She wasn't fat at all...maybe a bit of puppy fat at a stretch...but she was fine. She was a kid. But her mum got her onto dieting pills (which today we call speed and opium) and before long she was addicted. She was RICH and had all this fame. She lost loads of weight and got married a whole bunch of times. But it didn't make her happy. She had 3 kids but it didn't make her happy. Men loved her but it didn't make her happy. She died from an overdose of 'diet' pills. In the end, being thin and beautiful and popular still wasn't enough to make Judy Garland content and happy.

Why do we believe the rubbish that the world feeds us? Why do we think that such superficial stuff is going to make such a difference for the better in our lives, and we chase after it only to be sorely disappointed when it doesn't work!? We are so silly. In Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 it says this...

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

Have you got food in your fridge? Have you got a roof over your head? Have you got clothes to wear? You are so blessed! And yet we find it so hard to fathom that! Where do we get this mindset that the things of this world are going to make us happy? They don't! They fade away...WE fade away! We can't keep this body of ours! So why do we spend so much of our life worrying about the way we look? I'm not exempt from that. Trust me...I've had BIG self esteem issues in the past...not being able to live with myself at all because I just couldn't stand myself the way I am...big and unattractive...but I've discovered who I am in Christ...and its been a HARD slog..and its still not easy...but I know that God loves me anyway..and man that makes me happy! To know that I have someone who loves me REGARDLESS of what I do or say or what I look like...He truly loves me the way I am... flaws and all...that's an awesome feeling!

You know what? Life is life! It's tough! Sometimes it can be really hard. But, we have a God who far outweighs anything that this world could throw at us...and yet we still look for happiness elsewhere! If you are living for Christ and living in His will then you will find true happiness, completeness and contentedness. It won't always be easy...and in fact you won't EVER experience total eutopian trouble-free happiness all the time till you die and go to Heaven!

But while we're here, stop waiting for life to happen and for life to get easier...stop waiting till you earn enough money, drive a fast enough car, marry the right person, have a big enough house with the right number of kids...stop waiting till you finally afford your next holiday...CHOOSE to be happy NOW!! Life is too short for you to mope around complaining about every little thing that comes your way...you can't do anything about it by worrying about it...so why worry? (read Luke 12:22-34)...CHOOSE to be happy! Don't let every little thing get to you...annoy you...stress you out...hurt you...just be happy because Jesus loved you so much that He died for you...the enemy has been defeated and death couldn't hold Him down...so lift your voice in victory and make your praises LOUD...shout out to God with a voice of TRIUMPH...shout out to God with a voice of PRAISE!

Be happy my friends...and when you meet someone who is always unhappy and complaining about life...remind them that Jesus loves them...give them something to be happy about!!

Fight for happiness!!

Your sister in Christ

FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE...

Jodi