Happiness as a goal is certainly attainable, for a little bit, maybe even a while. Should happiness be the end all, be all goal of life?
Like many people, the past two years of going to church has been by way of an app like YouTube. Then again, many churches have resumed in person services. With my dad living with me, his stamina is not what it used to be, so we are still going to church via YouTube.
One sermon recently was about parenting. I kind of checked out as I am not a parent and so attended more to my iPad than church. Toward the end of the sermon, the pastor said for parents to raise their children with the notion that happiness should not be the main goal in life. He went on further to say that having a bad day is okay.
Media makes out happiness to be the end goal for everything. Spend all the money you can on an item or experience just to be happy. If a couple is not happy in a marriage… (you can guess the next part). Do everything you can to build up happiness because there is only one lifetime. The one who dies with the most toys win.
Except, this is not reality. Reality is takes a lot of hard work and even that hard work and the process can be grinding. Reality never makes it to anyone’s Instagram or Facebook. Reality has its moments too where happiness is part of the picture. Happiness is good, but happiness does not last, and it shouldn’t.
Happiness is a feeling as it can be temporary lasting for a few seconds to a few minutes. The reason happiness should not be a goal in life is because happiness is not lasting. Unfortunately, there are bad choices made to extend that feeling of happiness such as drugs, excessive alcohol and/or illicit behavior. All so that “feeling” of happiness stays around a bit longer.
Knowing happiness does not last, what if it could be the result of work? The “runner’s high” is real as the result of a challenging workout where the brain releases endorphins. The product is an incredible happiness because the time and effort have been put into something healthy. That runner’s high comes from the decision to exercise and put in the work each time. Even that high lasts so long.
The moral of this blog is to not be surprised when something comes along that derails happiness. To not be caught off guard when there are bad days. I think that Jesus has a dry sense of humor. John 16:33 includes, “in this life you will have trouble.”
I will be 48 in two months, and I am still surprised when something unplanned happens interrupting the good mood I am in. I have always been a planner, so my expectation is ideally for that activity to go as planned. There will always be something happening in the form of a random event or bad news that could potentially derail the activity.
One example is setting aside the time to write a blog like this. Ideally, I need absolute quite with no one in the house. Today I waited for my uncle to come and pick up my dad for lunch as they do this every Thursday. I almost get the very end of the editing process when I get an email from the director of one of the contracts jobs asking for a very large amount of information to be gathered and sent within a very small-time frame. So, I stop and gather the information needed and put off finishing the blog for another time.
Happiness is valid and needed at times. Happiness cannot be the end all goal because something else is guaranteed coming in needing attention and it never comes at the right time. When that happens, take a breath, and realize there is nothing broken. I write this because this is something I am tell myself.
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