[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Wednesday, July 9, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all out there on this hump day, at least for most of us.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you are all doing well today.

Here's another article from last year but, as I said yesterday, there are at least five people I know of who haven't read it, so am presenting it again for the first time for them, and the rest of you for the second time.  It's entitled "Relational Happiness" by Pastor David Miller who, at the time of this writing, was senior pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Naperville IL.  His article is rendered as follows:

A couple of years ago (2010) a journalist published a book that lived on my daughter's shelf until she gave it to me, knowing I was intrigued by the title:  "The Geography of Bliss." The book is a funny and illustrating read.

The author traveled to a dozen countries to learn why those who live there are so happy--or not.  The countries were not picked at random.  He chose his destinations after visiting the World Happiness Database (I'm not making this up.) in Amsterdam.

The WHD compiles and compares studies from social scientists across the world, who examine the age-old mystery of what makes for happy, contented lives.  Countries even receive scores on a 1-10 scale, based on extensive surveying.

In case you're wondering, the United States is not among the 20 happiest places on earth.  It ranks below places like Costa Rica, Malta, Malaysia, Bhutan, and Iceland--way below Iceland.

No surprise there.  During my lifetime, Americans have become many times richer, but the divorce rate has tripled, violent crime has quadrupled, the prison population quintupled, and mental health disorders like anxiety and depression are much more common.

This leads to the obvious conclusion that money matters less than we imagine.  After having enough to satisfy basic human needs, happiness plateaus and having more money makes little difference.

What matters are social and family connections, belonging to a people, a history, and a culture that transcends oneself.  Trusting others--your neighbors and fellow citizens--is essential.  Envy is toxic, as are unrealistic expectations for personal success and accomplishment.

Happy places allow people to try and fail without shame, providing them freedom to reinvent themselves.  They have space for idleness beyond the daily rush.  They also inspire an expansive consciousness, the awareness that life is bigger than me and my personal needs.  Summing up his view--and much of this happy, thoughtful book--a public official in the tiny nation of Bhutan said, "Happiness is 100% relational." We are created from and for each other, to complete each other.  We are fashioned for harmony with the earth and those with whom we share it.  Recognize it or not, we are deeply connected, and we find our joy and purpose in the community of those connections.

Little wonder that human happiness is 100% relational.  We can't deny our communal nature or hide it under the myth of the "self-made man" or beneath foolish ideas that suggest that we can live separate lives.  We are intimately connected with every other human family with whom we share this planet.

Occasionally, the narcissistic walls that keep us from seeing these connections crumble.  Earthquakes do this.  Pictures from Haiti move us in ways we can neither understand nor deny, as we witness faces of suffering and recognize those faces as our own.  So we care, we act, we give, becoming more human and, dare I say it, happier, having fulfilled in our bodies the humanity and communal connection God fashioned in our depths.

This is why two funerals I recently led were happier places than the American political marketplace.  At the funerals, we remembered, cried and laughed together.  We felt the sinews of love, struggle and history that bind us together.  Amid sorrow, there was joy as we experienced those connections--and our connection with God.

This is so different from American politics where the reality that we are all in this together is daily ripped apart.

Different, too, were the circles of conversation that continued longer than normal in the narthex last Sunday.  Serious exchanges and laughter spiced the air.  People shared news of illnesses and treatment, of family visits and children's activities, of hopes and anxieties for the coming week.

Connections were savored and nurtured, and we were happier and more human for it.  In some not-so-hidden way, the kingdom of God's delight was real.

And there you have Pastor Miller's article which I trust was a blessing for you.

Some comments are in order by the undersigned.  First, I can't think of any more personal, meaningful and intimate connections than interceding for others in "effectual fervent prayer" (James 5:16b KJV).  There's just something unwritable about the joining of a group's hearts, minds and souls connected in a unified body of intercession for a particular person or situation that moves the hand of God to perhaps act in a way that no one single person could on his/her own.  And, it is in this connection, in my personal opinion, that deeper and longer-lasting relationships can be cemented, even at great distances.

Secondly, I see a connection between being happy and contented.  Why did the Apostle Paul write in Philippians 4:12 that he has resolved to be content whatever his circumstances? And, in this connection (and I'll let you go to your Bible for this), please read Habakkuk 3:17-19 and, comparing those verses with Philippians 4:12, do you see the connection between those two unrelated passages of Scripture from the Old and New Testaments?

Well, enough of my opinions about Pastor Miller's article.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another daily thought contribution will be presented, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul