Mankind’s spiritual nature makes us more than animals. Yet
like animals, we generally carry an aversion to discomfort. We seek happiness;
and for many, spirituality is the ultimate source of happiness. For the most
spiritual and the most carnal, life is full of strife. There is no way out of
it. Jesus said to his followers, “In this life, you will have trouble.” The
common thread in all spiritual activity is to deal with the discomfort of life;
an effort to find something worthwhile in our existence; a desire to be happily
more than clay, water, and air.
Happy is a word with many synonyms. It describes feeling
pleasure, enjoyment, well-being, and contentment. Off the bat, I say we will
never be happy. We are born in sin and grow to be covetous gluttons. We are
never satisfied. Rainer Marie Rilke says in The Book of Hours, “Perhaps I want
everything.” Mary Oliver asks, “Are you breathing a little and calling it a
life?” Nat King Cole sang, “I want the frim-fram sauce with the oss and fay [not
your lame French fried potatoes or red ripe tomatoes].” We all, without
exception, want more than life could ever deliver. The richest man wants a bit
more, the average wants to be above average and the bottom-of-the-barrel wants
to be average. That is the reality of mankind, tangentially that is why
capitalism works – we are inherently greedy.
What’s happiness got to do with it? It is the Ultimate Unattainable,
the grail we all seek. The carnal in activities I will not name, the spiritual
in extreme devoutness, the industrious in profit and the lazy in empty longing.
It might be the unifying goal of all mankind. We work to earn so we might live
and live happily. We pray that God might provide for our livelihood and happiness.
We indulge as ones who in our activities pan for nuggets of happiness in the
mire of living.
Spiritual happiness is a whole different story – Jesus calls
us to be satisfied in Him (John 10:10, Matt 11:28-30, John 6:35). In Him who
died. In Him, whose most faithful and successful servants lived lives filled
with strife and ended harshly except a few (Heb 11). Hebrews 11 discusses the
many who saw a world far off and believed it was, nay lived as though it were
(Heb 11:13). The writer of Hebrews calls that faith. It is the driving force in
the life of the just (Hab 2:4, Heb 10:38), the gateway to pleasing God and finding
in Him a reward better and greater by far than happiness (Heb 11:6). I find a
lot in common with the character Smeagol from The Lord of the Rings by JRR
Tolkein and told by Peter Jackson – Smeagol in his last scene (in The Return of
the King) has fought for and acquired the one ring from Frodo Baggins. It is
irrelevant to him that he is falling into lava; he has his hearts’ desire. I
say "hearts" because in him (like me, (maybe) you, and all who seek Christ) was a heart
bent to villainy as it was bent to sainthood. He was constantly conflicted. And
as he sinks you see the confusion in his eyes as he looks around, but he knows
to look upon the ring in his palm. Though he dies he dies happy and fully satisfied.
Happiness is found in that for which you will die, that for
which you will live as if there is no tomorrow. My desire is to point to Christ
for only in Him is there sure salvation, but some will find in my words a push
to other things. Let me say those will end. Love for Christ is eternal. If you
will live for Him now, then you live for Him and with Him forever. That is the happiness we all long for – a life of meaning. If you will be Smeagol, Jesus can be
to you as the One ring – your life’s consuming desire. Finding that is finding utter
happiness for whatever happens around you as long as your eyes are fixed on
your source of happiness, then happiness will never leave you. The hymn writer wrote, “Turn
your eyes onto Jesus look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
