Have you ever stood at a crossroads in your life and wondered what would make you happy?
All too often, what we thought would make us happy hasn't, so we have found ourselves on a never-ending quest to grab that carrot that bobs along, just beyond reach.
Do we really know? Does that promised happiness really pan out in the end?
You are married seven, ten, twenty years and at one moment you look around, see your wife and children, your house and all that you have achieved and you find out that you are still lonely.
Our best friends are throwing a part for us. Everyone is happy with you. Everyone compliments you. But, in a blink of a moment, you lean against the wall, look around and you find out that, despite all your good friends and their best wishes, you are still lonely.
Loneliness is the main ingredient to push us in our pursuit of happiness.
Loneliness, the absence of meaningful human connection, drains the joy and the sense of purpose from our lives.
We are desperate for the sound of another human voice in our lives.
The sad truth is that even married people can be lonely and unconnected.
In fact, we are not so great at anticipating what will make us happy, especially when it comes to choices such as buying a big house, working long hours for a bigger paycheck or buying a new car or a piece of jewelry.
None of this should come as much of a surprise to a reader of the New Testament, since Jesus and his followers said a lot on this subject.
They marked a pretty clear path that leads to happiness, whereas the promise of perfect human relationships, material possessions and utopia circumstances fail.
If material possessions and human bliss become a person's endeavors, one is likely to discover fear and greed through that crack in the window. These keep one from contentment by keeping thought in constant turmoil.
Seeking true happiness doesn't require that we sacrifice all worldly good - just that we get our priorities straight.
True Religion offers to redeem us from loneliness, not by answering our prayers and sending us the man or woman of our dreams, but by teaching us to see our neighbors as ourselves, to be aware of their humanity, their fears and feelings, instead of only being aware of our own.
True Religion teaches us not how to WIN friends but how to BE a friend, to be concerned with alleviating the loneliness of others, learning to hear their cry instead of wondering why no one hears ours.
In one of the great paradoxes at the heart of all Religion and Life, when we worry about ourselves, when we consult all those "how to do..." books on how to make ourselves happier, we guarantee that our deepest needs will continue to go unmet.
When we learn to see the people around us as needing love, as being entitled to love and happiness, every bit as much as we are, we discover that we cure our loneliness in the act of reaching out to them.
Once we have met God, we may find ourselves widowed or unmarried, unemployed or unpopular, but even then, God's closeness will protect us from a sense of abandonment and despair.
What does Religion offer that we lonely human souls need?
One of the many things it offers is community. Our place of worship offers us a refuge, an island of caring, in the midst of a hostile, competitive world.
In our society, that segregates the old from the young, the well-off from the struggling, the house of worship represents one place where the barriers fall and we all stand equal before God.
It promises to be the one place in our society where my gain does not mean your loss. The man or woman that worships next to you may be an insurance agent or the manager of a rival business, but for the hour you spend together, he or she is not trying to sell you anything or get ahead of you.
The world may have our hands, but our souls belong to someone else.
It is under the auspices of Religion, and almost nowhere else in our lives, that we can meet people as brothers and sisters, not as buyers and sellers.
In the world of the Master, we must seek "first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you", as we read in Matthew: chapter 6; Verse 33.
Isn't happiness one of those necessary "things … added"?
We might think of this Kingdom as the reign of harmony and the atmosphere of Spirit that brings true happiness. Anything short of this might satisfy for a moment, but will disappoint in the end because it lacks substance and staying power.
The great thing about setting out to achieve this Kingdom of God is that we don't have to look too long and hard, because it’s within reach of our consciousness, right here and now.
Jesus knew where Love comes from; it enabled him to forgive Judas, even before his sin. There is such authority in that foundation of Love. It must be what we read in I Kings: Chapter 3; Verse 12: "a wise and understanding heart" that King Solomon prayed for.
Such a heart is tempered like steel, in the knowledge of the constancy of God loving each of us.
A tempered heart welcomes opportunities to love, and becomes less vulnerable to believing that it's possible to lose love or miss out on it.
Jesus didn't walk the earth to promote human happiness. When a central aspect of his life involved struggle and tribulation, to suggest that he was just promoting happiness would be to trivialize the sacrifices he made and misguide those who think that following him means never having to face adversity.
But Jesus triumphed over sin, disease, and even death. Yet, he also taught people about true happiness, happiness that is more the byproduct of spiritual attainment than the goal of it.
Is happiness ultimately a genetic predisposition? Is it really just a matter of seeing the glass half full instead of half empty?
The answers lie in the knowledge of God and in each individual's relationship to Him.
Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love.
It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
This kind of happiness is not superficial. It wells up from deep within our innermost selves, bringing with it lovely serenity.
Israel Rafalovich
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Please also see:
Al-Bushra http://www.al-bushra.org
Every Church A Peace Church http://www.ecapc.org
Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation http://www.hcef.org
All too often, what we thought would make us happy hasn't, so we have found ourselves on a never-ending quest to grab that carrot that bobs along, just beyond reach.
Do we really know? Does that promised happiness really pan out in the end?
You are married seven, ten, twenty years and at one moment you look around, see your wife and children, your house and all that you have achieved and you find out that you are still lonely.
Our best friends are throwing a part for us. Everyone is happy with you. Everyone compliments you. But, in a blink of a moment, you lean against the wall, look around and you find out that, despite all your good friends and their best wishes, you are still lonely.
Loneliness is the main ingredient to push us in our pursuit of happiness.
Loneliness, the absence of meaningful human connection, drains the joy and the sense of purpose from our lives.
We are desperate for the sound of another human voice in our lives.
The sad truth is that even married people can be lonely and unconnected.
In fact, we are not so great at anticipating what will make us happy, especially when it comes to choices such as buying a big house, working long hours for a bigger paycheck or buying a new car or a piece of jewelry.
None of this should come as much of a surprise to a reader of the New Testament, since Jesus and his followers said a lot on this subject.
They marked a pretty clear path that leads to happiness, whereas the promise of perfect human relationships, material possessions and utopia circumstances fail.
If material possessions and human bliss become a person's endeavors, one is likely to discover fear and greed through that crack in the window. These keep one from contentment by keeping thought in constant turmoil.
Seeking true happiness doesn't require that we sacrifice all worldly good - just that we get our priorities straight.
True Religion offers to redeem us from loneliness, not by answering our prayers and sending us the man or woman of our dreams, but by teaching us to see our neighbors as ourselves, to be aware of their humanity, their fears and feelings, instead of only being aware of our own.
True Religion teaches us not how to WIN friends but how to BE a friend, to be concerned with alleviating the loneliness of others, learning to hear their cry instead of wondering why no one hears ours.
In one of the great paradoxes at the heart of all Religion and Life, when we worry about ourselves, when we consult all those "how to do..." books on how to make ourselves happier, we guarantee that our deepest needs will continue to go unmet.
When we learn to see the people around us as needing love, as being entitled to love and happiness, every bit as much as we are, we discover that we cure our loneliness in the act of reaching out to them.
Once we have met God, we may find ourselves widowed or unmarried, unemployed or unpopular, but even then, God's closeness will protect us from a sense of abandonment and despair.
What does Religion offer that we lonely human souls need?
One of the many things it offers is community. Our place of worship offers us a refuge, an island of caring, in the midst of a hostile, competitive world.
In our society, that segregates the old from the young, the well-off from the struggling, the house of worship represents one place where the barriers fall and we all stand equal before God.
It promises to be the one place in our society where my gain does not mean your loss. The man or woman that worships next to you may be an insurance agent or the manager of a rival business, but for the hour you spend together, he or she is not trying to sell you anything or get ahead of you.
The world may have our hands, but our souls belong to someone else.
It is under the auspices of Religion, and almost nowhere else in our lives, that we can meet people as brothers and sisters, not as buyers and sellers.
In the world of the Master, we must seek "first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you", as we read in Matthew: chapter 6; Verse 33.
Isn't happiness one of those necessary "things … added"?
We might think of this Kingdom as the reign of harmony and the atmosphere of Spirit that brings true happiness. Anything short of this might satisfy for a moment, but will disappoint in the end because it lacks substance and staying power.
The great thing about setting out to achieve this Kingdom of God is that we don't have to look too long and hard, because it’s within reach of our consciousness, right here and now.
Jesus knew where Love comes from; it enabled him to forgive Judas, even before his sin. There is such authority in that foundation of Love. It must be what we read in I Kings: Chapter 3; Verse 12: "a wise and understanding heart" that King Solomon prayed for.
Such a heart is tempered like steel, in the knowledge of the constancy of God loving each of us.
A tempered heart welcomes opportunities to love, and becomes less vulnerable to believing that it's possible to lose love or miss out on it.
Jesus didn't walk the earth to promote human happiness. When a central aspect of his life involved struggle and tribulation, to suggest that he was just promoting happiness would be to trivialize the sacrifices he made and misguide those who think that following him means never having to face adversity.
But Jesus triumphed over sin, disease, and even death. Yet, he also taught people about true happiness, happiness that is more the byproduct of spiritual attainment than the goal of it.
Is happiness ultimately a genetic predisposition? Is it really just a matter of seeing the glass half full instead of half empty?
The answers lie in the knowledge of God and in each individual's relationship to Him.
Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love.
It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
This kind of happiness is not superficial. It wells up from deep within our innermost selves, bringing with it lovely serenity.
Israel Rafalovich
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Please also see:
Al-Bushra http://www.al-bushra.org
Every Church A Peace Church http://www.ecapc.org
Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation http://www.hcef.org