If you're happy and you know it

IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT

I won't make you clap your hands, stomp your feet, or say "Amen", but you may remember this song from children's church or vbs growing up back in the day?

It's a song telling us to show it if we're happy. It's a song really to make you feel happy. The thing about happiness is it is just that, a feeling. It's conditional, it changes like the weather and is based upon what we have, don't have, get, don't get, want, don't want, or who we are or aren't around?

You can be happy and sad in the same day. You can be happy one minute and mad the next. You can be happy today and depressed tomorrow.
Society and the world teach us life is too short, live life to the fullest, do what makes you happy, don't think about the consequences. Or don't worry, be happy, blah blah blah, yadayadayada. It's misleading and false. Life isn't about being happy. Life is about having purpose, meaning, value, and finding peace and contentment. These things can make us happy more often, but they are not about happiness alone.

God wants us to be happy, but God didn't create us for our happiness. I would be bold enough to say God isn't happy all the time either. His people(me, for example), disobey, dissapoint, sin, fall short, turn our backs, aren't faithful, lie, disrespect, misuse our time and talents, etc...the list is endless of the things we do to go against God's plan, purpose, and direction for our lives, and I can't imagine in my small mind that can make God happy with us at times.

Don't get me wrong I like being happy, but I'm coming to realize life isn't about being happy as much as it is being joyful. I can have joy in God even when I'm mad, sad, depressed, angry, or hurt. I can find peace, contentment, and purpose in God even when I'm not getting my way, people are hurting me, and life isn't going the way I had hoped, or I fall short. The Bible doesn't promise happy, it promises joy, hope, eternal life, purpose, etc....

We need to stop being people that think we are supposed to be happy all the time and stop focusing on ourselves, our wants, and our agendas and realize we should appreciate the happy times and seek to find happiness, but happiness is not the goal or ultimate prize. Happiness is a product of my feelings at the time or the conditions of that moment in time, but I can always have Joy, peace, hope, purpose, meaning, value, and promise in a relationship with God that is honest, real, everlasting, and true.

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."
John 15:11(NIV)