And Now I Am Happy All the Day 😊

Like most words, happiness has a range of meanings. Sometimes “happy” might mean “pleased”.

I hardly think that he was claiming that he was bubbling over with happiness all day every day. In the Bible, I never see anyone like that.

Another source of confusion about happiness is the expectation that being happy should be our default mode. Throughout our lives, we often put up with things, such as school, with the expectation that the next stage will be much much better. But that doesn’t often turn out to be the case. We don’t often think of the future challenges that we’ll face. In reality, life is a struggle, but it has its happy aspects.

I look to my future life in the New Heaven and New Earth for constant happiness. I’m not even certain that I’ll be perfectly happy all the time then. There won’t be any really distressful suffering, but think of how you feel when you play a computer game or a soccer game or whatever. You’re not in a state of constant bliss, but you enjoy it. I think of a line from the Book of Revelation, where the martyrs in heaven are longing for their enemies to be punished:

Revelation 6:10
“How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Perhaps you could argue that after the final judgement, everything will be wonderful in heaven and awful in Hell. And I think it will be wonderful. But maybe you can be happy and yet face challenges that might prove difficult at times. Would I prefer to be active or living in some sort of drug-induced blissful bubble? I’d choose to be active.

If you consider Adam and Eve, before they sinned, they did have a role to perform and work to do. If you don’t take the story literally, it’s still a picture of a perfect world that God presents:

Gen 2:15
¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Gen 1:28
²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

But then, after they disobeyed God, they brought suffering into the world.

Gen 3:17-19
¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

But in the New Heaven and New Earth, all that will be rectified. Yet, if humans were created to be active in the original creation, why not in the New Heaven and New Earth? Sometimes I like to think of it as utterly different from this life. Other times, I think of how wonderful it would be if I could live my life again and constantly have the power to tweak it so that nothing distressing would happen. I wouldn’t want to empty of it of any challenges. And perhaps my future life will be like that. But that’s all speculation. Yet, I do know that it’ll be wonderful and free of sin, sorrow and death.

Anyway, here are some songs about today’s theme:

Songs about happiness can be a bit irritating when you’re in a bad mood. You shouldn’t lie and try to tell yourself how wonderful everything is. It’s better to get things in perspective – and to do that you could list what’s upsetting you, but also count your blessings. Try to aim for balance, but ease yourself into being positive about life. And sometimes, when we act as if we are happy, it nudges us into being happier. The same is true for the opposite – if we keen moaning, we can drag ourselves down.

And I’ll finish with a couple of hymns and one of my favourite verses:

Revelation 21:4
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”