How Can We Be Happy In Such A Sad World?

How can we be happy in such a sad world?

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

JESUS (Matthew 11:28-30, NASB)

The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness—with such a God, such a Saviour, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man? OCTAVIUS WINSLOW

GOD’S LAWS ARE often seen as burdensome, but everything changes when we realize he intended them to secure our happiness. When the gospel is viewed primarily as laying burdens and obligations on people, the Good News gets buried. Burdens and obligations are not good news; good news is about liberation, deliverance, newfound delight, and celebration. Sure, duty is real and the gospel calls us to a life of obedience, but it’s glad duty and joyful obedience.

Consider Christ’s example. He said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34). Food not only keeps us alive; it brings us pleasure. What is Christ’s food, his source of happiness? To accomplish his Father’s will. Doing and obeying the will of his Father is a delight, not a burden, to Jesus—even though the Cross was the greatest burden in the history of the cosmos, one that makes all other burdens seem insignificant in comparison.

Carrying “light burdens” doesn’t mean that bad and demanding things won’t happen to us; it means that Jesus will lessen their weight upon us as we trust him and rely upon him to carry the load. Following Christ is to be characterized by “casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7, HCSB). This is why Paul could call both his and our considerable sufferings “light and momentary troubles” (2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV).

When we seek holiness at the expense of happiness or happiness at the expense of holiness, we lose both the joy of being holy and the happiness birthed by obedience. God commands holiness, knowing that when we follow his plan, we’ll be happy. He also commands happiness, which makes obeying him not only duty but also pleasure.

Sadly, many Christians live as if their faith has drained their happiness! But the same Jesus who calls for sacrifice, promising that we’ll share in his suffering, also tells us to lay our burdens at his feet. We’re to take up our crosses daily, yet he promises that his burden is light. Life isn’t easy, but believers have the benefit of walking the hard roads side by side with a loving Father, a Son who is our friend, and a comforting Holy Spirit.

Paul J. Wadell, in an ethics textbook, says, “Augustine and Aquinas . . . recognized that . . . the heart of the Christian moral life is learning about happiness.”^a

How much better might people respond to Christian ethics if its principles weren’t portrayed as burdensome obligations to the God of holiness we fear but as a privilege and a delight in the God of happiness we love?

If holiness and happiness are inseparable, why not do what many churches have done for centuries and appeal to people only on the basis of holiness? Because, though holiness is a deep need of the soul, it’s not always a felt need. By God’s grace, we can use the desire for happiness to lead people to the holiness that’s woven into the gospel with happiness.

Thomas Watson (1620–1686), a Puritan preacher and author, said, “He has no design upon us, but to make us happy. . . . Who should be cheerful, if not the people of God?”^b

Did you catch that? A Puritan was saying that God’s design is to make us happy! What did Watson realize that we don’t?

Father, sometimes it’s too easy to focus on how tough life is and forget the good things you have filled our world with. You’ve lightened our burdens by giving us access to your throne of grace, where we’re free to unload all our burdens and worries. Thank you—a thousand times over, thank you! May we always remember that following your ways and seeking holiness in you is the greatest happiness there is.