Happiness is one criteria we often site as
a character of contentment.
Jesus said
that, “he came that we might have abundant life.” I imagine some
of us would say being happy is what that
means. I heard someone say that,
“happiness
is not having what you want, but, wanting what you have.” I think
it is much
more than that. It has to do with a
sense who we are as a person.
If we follow Jesus
and carry our own cross each day, maybe a
part of the
abundant
life is learning how to give ourselves away.
When I interviewed college
students for
about 60 plus jobs at camp each summer, I
would ask why they wanted
to work at
camp. A common answer was so that they
could serve God. By the
middle of
the summer, several would be less joyful about being on camp staff
because
they began to “feel” like servants. That
didn’t make them very “happy”.
Jesus showed us how to give
ourselves away by giving himself away so
that we
might have life, and that abundantly.
The abundant life begins by our
knowing who
we are in Christ and choosing to give ourselves away in service
and to experience happiness.
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