Happiness. It’s one of those intangible attributes that most people put at the top of their list of the things they want out of this life. All of us want to be content … satisfied … joyful. We want to love and be loved in return. We want to be fulfilled and complete. The sum of these good feelings is what we usually call happiness. But when you ask people if they are happy right now – many of them will tell you they are not. Why is this?
Often it is because most of us do not honestly know what will make us happy. The things we have tried in the past all failed to bring lasting satisfaction. That is the nature of the human condition. We want something until we finally get it, and then we find that it isn’t enough. What was new and exciting becomes old and familiar over time. So we keep looking.
From Alexander the Great and the Roman Caesars to Genghis Kahn, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolph Hitler, people of every generation have sought to rule the known world. But none succeeded in that goal. All of these people died, some quite unpleasantly – and none came to their life’s end fulfilled and complete. They controlled the wealth and pleasures of a hundred kingdoms, but they were not happy.
In Ecclesiastes 2:8-11 King Solomon said: “I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
These would-be world leaders learned the same lesson that we all do: trying to fill the voids in one’s life with possessions or power or fame won’t work. Only God, our Creator, Maker, and Lord, who knows us better than we know ourselves, can make us complete. Can fill us up and leave us satisfied. Can bring us to happiness.
Matthew 16:26 says, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Each of us is an eternal soul, made by God and for God’s glory. Our souls long for eternal happiness, not temporary pleasures that pass away. That’s why possessions don’t satisfy our deeper longings.
But even if material possessions could make us happy, they would not last forever. Each of us is born with empty hands, and we die the same way. The Egyptian Pharaohs were buried with food and drink and riches. Some were even buried with slaves to serve them in the afterlife. But when their tombs were opened by archaeologists, all of those worldly goods were still there … still buried. Nothing crossed over to another life. Pharaohs met their death with empty hands, just like the rest of us.
James 14:14 reminds us how short is our earthly life, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” So we only have a little while – this earthly life – to shape how we will spend our eternity. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow.
As Americans, we take for granted the fact that we were born into (or can obtain through citizenship) certain rights and freedoms. Long before our birth a commitment was made to our nation’s citizens, documented in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, codified in laws, and built into the fabric of our society. Nothing we did earned that freedom; we did not pay the price for it. It is ours, but only if we claim it by citizenship – by our allegiance to this country. If we renounce our citizenship or move to other lands, we lose the freedom and protection it offers us.
So why is it so hard for us to understand that we were born with eternal souls? That long before our birth a commitment – a covenant – was made to people who chose to follow God. That this covenant is documented in the Bible and designed to change the fabric of our lives. That nothing we did earned this freedom, and Jesus Christ, not us, paid the price for it. God’s freedom and protection are ours if we claim it by our love and obedience to him by becoming citizens of his eternal kingdom. And there is a terrible price to be paid for renouncing God’s offer, for turning away from his protection.
There are those who do not believe in eternal souls. Who believe that our world is a cosmic accident formed by random chance. They believe that we live, we die, and that is it for us. But look within yourself. Do you feel like an accident? Look at the people you love. Were you, were they, made for something more than 70 or 80 years and then a funeral? Do not you feel the spark of eternity within you? Don’t you believe there is more to life than what you can see today?
If you do, then you have three choices. (1) You can ignore it, hoping that it isn’t real and that there will be no penalty for turning your back on the God who made you eternal. (2) You can accept it gratefully and seek out God by connecting with believers, by reading his holy scripture, by prayer to God that he will show you the way to him, and by a life dedicated to knowing and obeying and loving him. (3) Or you can put off the decision, counting on having the time later in life to ponder such weighty decisions.
Sadly, many people choose #3 and they die before making their decision for God. The Bible says that puts them in the same circumstance as #1 – living an eternity separated from God. Other people believe they can earn a place in God’s kingdom by living a “good” life, or at least by not living a bad one. They believe that a place in Heaven is automatically theirs, so long as they don’t act too badly and lose it. As comforting as that thought is, there is absolutely nothing in God’s Word to support that belief. To the contrary, the Bible is very clear: faith and love and obedience to God are active choices each of us must make for ourselves. We must choose to be citizens of God’s kingdom. Salvation from an eternity without God is a gift – offered freely to all, paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and ours if we accept it with everything that entails.
My hope – my prayer – for each person who reads this is that you have made, or will make, that decision for eternal life with God offered through Jesus. That is the only source of happiness today and in the eternity that lies ahead. And if you understand how difficult it is to be happy today on earth without God, imagine what that will feel like forever. It’s your choice, your eternity.
