One of my favourite pop singers is Robert McFerrin Jr., an American jazz vocalist. He is known for his vocal techniques, like singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch.
Even today I remember his classic song - Don’t worry, be happy sung about three decades ago. The gentle reggae drew me in, and the words seemed right enough. “In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don’t worry- be happy”
I wasn’t the only one who noticed McFerrin’s pop song. It became a cultural meme. It was No. 1 U.S. pop hit in 1988 and won the Song of the Year title at the 1989 Grammy Awards. The song is ranked No. 31 on VH1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the ‘80s.
The song’s content gave listeners a deep message that all of us are hardwired to pursue happiness. We’re always looking for it, whether we know or not. We don’t have to be told to seek joy and pleasure. We just naturally, instinctively, pre-cognitively want to be happy. So, we pursue happiness, just as we always have.
Pursuit
This pursuit has taken shape in different places according to different natural inclinations. The Greek philosophical camp known as the Epicureans, for example, advocated that pleasure is the highest good in life. Led by the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–270 BCE), this school sought both tranquillity and the absence of physical pain.
Aristotle, the great Philosopher also agreed and said, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
If that sounds technical, it doesn’t need to. The rationale of epicurean philosophy is simple: if it feels good, do it. Many influential voices over the centuries have urged the same attitude. The Roman emperor Domitian, for example, hung a painting that personified death in his home to remind guests of the need to live pleasurably while there was still time.
Though the later Epicureans urged the goodness of moderating one’s quest for pleasure, many who have historically gravitated to the ‘Epicurean’ philosophy have adopted a self-indulgent way of life. They have moved away from a restrained, ethical lifestyle and embraced the natural instincts and appetites that seem to promise happiness.
This philosophy persisted over the ages. In the eighteenth century, La Mettrie, the French physician and philosopher said, “Nature created us all solely to be happy,” and left us to find happiness as we see fit. In the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde voiced the same perspective. In An Ideal Husband, Wilde’s character Lord Goring argues that “Pleasure is the only thing to live for. Nothing ages like happiness.”
The historical trend continued. Even today, we can find many prominent cultural voices that champion the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure.
Happiness
We indulge in gratifications in the pursuit of happiness. We feel we are entitled to our fair share of ‘happiness.’ In view of the risks involved in such indulgences some popular cautions are given: Do not drink and drive. Cigarettes may kill you. Excess alcohol might be injurious to your heath, etc. This advice is not the remedy.
If happiness is to be found in these ways, why the lonely feeling in the crowded bar? Why the low after the high? Why the uneasy feeling after the indulgence? Why the let-down feeling after the intimate relationship breaks off? If indulgence brings happiness, why do they always seem to be just beyond our grasp? Why so many problems and why does life seem so empty?
Christian view
It’s Christmas next week. Maybe now is the opportune moment a Christian should ask himself one important question. How should I find happiness?
When the Bible mentions happiness, it speaks of something that is self-contained. The happiness the Bible advocates isn’t dependent on circumstances. The words for “bless” and “blessed” in the Old and New Testaments illustrate why this is true.
In the Old Testament, the word ashre means ‘well-being,’ ‘flourishing,’ and ‘happiness.’ This word is often translated into English as ‘blessed.’ Ashre is used throughout the Psalms and Proverbs to describe the happy state of those who live wisely according to God’s design.
Thus, ashre is making an appeal to true happiness through obedience within the gracious covenant God has given to his people. Christians are drawn into the covenant of grace by God, and are held in that covenant by his power alone. Yet, the Bible makes it clear that those in the covenant have responsibilities. When Christians are faithful to those responsibilities, we are blessed.
The Bible shows that happiness can never be found directly. If your highest priority is happiness, you will always be disappointed. This is the opposite of what our culture proclaims. Our culture has a dangerous bias towards real happiness.
This is why true happiness is never found in external circumstances. It is a by-product of seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness.
Psalm 1 says: A blessed (happy) person is one who doesn’t do evil (walk in step with the wicked) or take his position with sinners or sit among those who mock good. The blessed man (the happy person) is the one who delights in the law of God and meditates on that law, day and night.
Those drawn to a celebrity’s lifestyle of uncontrolled excess need only look at the latest headline to see that the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure does not fulfil us. It destroys us.
The quieter path doesn’t yield as many page views, but it can leave the soul shrunken. Christians who go looking for happiness in the modern way will find not the transcendent God who made them and rules them, but themselves. Such approaches to happiness will no doubt feel good to them for a short period but wouldn’t satisfy God.
The reason is because followers of Jesus are made for something greater. They are made to lose themselves in a majestic, soul-saving, world-remaking God. That instinct in them that so many of them feel is given to them to point them to human insufficiency. They want and need something greater, something pure, a force that simultaneously ruins them and restores them. This is the message of God. He is the cause of true happiness, and he is happiness itself.