Happiness: the Discipline of Celebration
By Don Bromley
[video: hv3_happy.mpg; ]
We rarely seem to live in and savor the present moment, believing that what counts most will happen in the future. We postpone our happiness, believing that tomorrow will be better than today.
But the ability to savor, to celebrate and truly appreciate the present, positive experiences of your life is one of the most important ingredients of happiness.
Growing up, mom did her best to teach me what was important. She taught me about God; she taught me about Jesus, and that he loved me. As I grew up she taught me the importance of education and learning (she was a teacher).
Then, during senior year of college she developed breast cancer and died. And I remember during her sickness telling me something that’s really stuck with me over the years:
“The one thing I regret is that I didn’t teach you kids how to be happy.”
That struck me as a very strange thing to say.
My first instinct was to be a bit defensive—why do you say I’m not happy? But I knew she was right, I wasn’t happy. I had lots of things going for me—my health, a great education at a top school, a full ride scholarship, academic success—but I was very unhappy.
I was always focused on finishing whatever phase of life I was currently in, and positioning myself for what lay next. I never took joy in what I had done, or what I was currently doing. Usually I wasn’t doing anything as well as I thought I could, or wasn’t doing what I thought I should be doing, as so was usually frustrated.
Mom was right, I wasn’t happy. How did I get this way?
Every night when I put my two-year-old daughter Eve to bed, we have a little routine. First I brush her teeth (she LOVES the flavor of the toothpaste), then she uses the potty and Julie puts her pajamas on. Then I read her a book (she loves to look at Mrs. Tickle’s picture)… and then she does her Twinkle Twinkle dance. She walks around in circles in her room with her arms up in the air singing “Twinkle twinkle little star.” And we clap and sing along, and she’s just savoring every moment…and then we put her in bed, pray, and she goes to sleep.
You know, when I watch my daughter do the Twinkle Twinkle dance, there is hardly anything in the world that could make me any happier, because my little girl is enjoying her life—she’s happy.
There are so many good things I want for my daughter—but I know one thing for sure, I want her to be happy, I want her life to be filled with joy—I want her to sing and dance, and truly savor the experiences of her life.
What does this have to do with God?
What I want to suggest is this: God created you to know joy and happiness. God wants you to know joy and happiness.
C.S. Lewis put it like this:
Joy is the serious business of heaven.
Probably the single most famous statement from the Presbyterian Church is this line:
The chief end of human beings is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
God wants you to sing and dance and savor and enjoy positive experiences in your present life. Part of God’s wisdom that we’ve been exploring is the “how” of being happy.
This idea of savoring positive experiences is part of why there was such an emphasis in the Old Testament placed on Feast Days. If you have ever read through the Old Testament, you know there are a lot of instructions about people coming together to eat food and to sing and to dance. Why? It’s kind of training for joy.
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the people that they are supposed to take a certain portion of their income for this particular feast day:
Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns…
Can you believe that this is in the Bible? I grew up in a Baptist church. We never read that part of the Bible in our church!
Go, use some of your money to go shopping and buy that pair of shoes you’ve been longing for—or that new game for your Xbox, and then go home, gather everyone together, including your neighbors, enjoy a glass of wine and a nice meal, and rejoice! Savor it, savor the moment.
Understand this is not a license for rampant consumerism or substance abuse, which is a curse and causes great misery in our day. But it is an indication of the extent to which we need training for joy. We need to learn how to celebrate and be happy.
Joylessness is a sin and quite a serious one. Joy really is commanded. Can you imagine what would happen in our world if the two primary characteristics that people associated with followers of Jesus were Love and Joy? Can you imagine?
Nehemiah said one time to a grieving group of people:
"This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." …
"Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Without joy and happiness, life becomes drudgery and is exhausting. Ministry becomes defeating.
We need to practice the discipline of celebration. We need to practice savoring and enjoying the world around us
Because joy is the business of heaven. One of the pervasive metaphors used for what the kingdom of heaven is like is a banquet, a feast. People delighting in rich food and drink, enjoying each other’s company, having fun. Taking pleasure in the senses.
[read from p. 199; The How of Happiness]
[chocolate experience – play Tingri Maiden CD]
About this time, if somebody’s thoughtful, they’re going to ask this question:
How can I embrace joy with all the pain going on around me? Is it even right to talk about joy in a world where there is suffering and hunger and violence?
It’s right here that we see the strange truth that it is often people who are closest to suffering who are filled with the most joy. People who lived with Mother Teresa said that in the middle of all that suffering, what was remarkable about her was not the way that she kept serving; it was the extraordinary capacity in which she brought joy.
In this world, if real happiness is to exist at all, it will have to be able to exist alongside of suffering. In fact, I think one of the tests of authentic happiness is its ability to exist in the midst of pain.
I remember my mom’s body being destroyed by breast cancer in 1994. I remember sitting by her bed and saying, “I love you.” Over and over and over, never knowing when it will be the last time she would be able to hear those words. And in the midst of pain and agony and loss and confusion and anger, there is a little heartbeat of wonder and gratitude and delight in my mom, in who she had become, who she was . . . like a flower that grows up through the crack in the sidewalk and you just can’t kill it.
The past couple of weeks have been very challenging for me personally. We’ve had some bad health news in the family. A close friend lost a sibling. And, much less serious but nonetheless distressing, my computer’s hard-drive crashed—taking with it all my files from the past few years.
And in the back of my mind I keep remembering that I’m supposed to preach a sermon in this happiness series. God, what are you trying to tell me?
I think it’s this: God is really serious about you learning to be a happy, joyful person. And it’s not about your circumstances, or how much money you have, or how things are going for you at the moment in your career or relationships. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t learn it growing up, that you weren’t born genetically predisposed to be happy. It’s never too late to learn.
It’s part of this whole business of learning to be human—learning to be a truly authentic human being.
That’s what I want to learn—my mom didn’t teach me, but I want to learn how to be happy. I want to learn to laugh, to savor and celebrate the present. I want to dance. I have a little girl who taught me about dancing, and if I want to do it, I have to do it today! This is the day for me to learn.
And we’ll continue to learn together…
Until that day comes—and it surely will come—when, in the words of the prophet, who was trying to express what no words could ever express:
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isa 55:12)