Everyone wants to be happy.  If only I were more successful, had a Jaguar series E, more respected or if my health were better, I know I would be happy!  Or so I think.  We tend to see happiness as a result of our circumstances and not a feeling within us. 

I found the word happiness comes from the Middle English word “hap”. As in happenstance or haphazard, implying random chance or luck.  If you were lucky enough to be born into ideal circumstances, you have everything to make you happy.  Is that really true?

I have come to believe, though, that happiness is a state of mind and not a state of being.  It’s a way of thinking which is something that we can consciously direct, as opposed to a state of being that results from a specific set of circumstances outside our control. 

It isn’t luck or happenstance that ensures our attainment of happiness; rather, it is the way we think about and process the circumstances we encounter.

This simple idea has huge implications.  It means that we achieve the happiness we seek by adjusting the focus of our thoughts.  That all sounds so simple but we know that life isn’t simple.  It’s complicated and bad things do happen to us and those we love.  Now what to do? 

I wish I had a neat/ pat answer for the problems we encounter.  However, just perhaps, we might find something worthy in our experiences.  Perhaps we can still be happy and find something positive for which we can find a bit of happiness. 

Saying this involves thankfulness as well.  However, if we view happiness as a thought, then we must make a conscious effort to think positively when problems arise in our lives. 

True satisfaction in life comes not from having the things we want, but enjoying the things we have!  For in life the only things we truly have are the things that we appreciate!

Perhaps the key component to happiness is our ability to live fully in this moment, erasing, at least temporarily, any painful thoughts about the past or anxious thoughts relating to the future.  Now is where true happiness is found.  If we are fearful of the future, then we are always restless and discontented. 

But how can we possibly react to bad experiences in exactly the same way as we respond to the experiences that are good or bring us joy?   

If we connect to our Creator, then perhaps we might see that He allows things in our life which are part of His grand design for us.  Remember that scripture tells us “He chastens those whom He Loves!”  That’s a difficult concept.

A friend of mine in El Paso. (BJ by name!) sent me this and I feel it fits in nicely with true happiness. 

“It is my prayer that your eagerness to do good works will become very contagious – because through serving, you have come to realize that:

LIFE IS BETTER WHEN YOU ARE HAPPY, BUT LIFE IS BEST WHEN OTHER PEOPLE ARE HAPPY BECAUSE OF YOU!!”

                                 May we all say   Amen!!