714 vs. 167

The way to be truly happy is to be truly human,
and the way to be truly human is to be truly godly.
J. I. Packer

This post has been a long time in the making.

For Christmas this year, I convinced my wife to cook a ridiculously complicated duck à l'orange recipe, which called for a double-stock sauce. To be honest, without her, I wouldn't have managed to get through all the necessary steps. It was so specific that we ended up improvising on a few of the steps. Two things I learned through that process:

1. Don't choose the most complicated recipe, because your wife won't be impressed if she has to help out in the end.
2. A good sauce/stock/broth (and I mean 'heavenly-good quality'!) takes a long time to really take on all the flavours.

These days, I find many reasons to put my writing aside and do other things. There are topics or thoughts, however, that just sit with you, until you decide to finally express them through writing.

 

714

This post is one of those. It all started with an article I read several weeks ago on something called the 'Glücksatlas'. This is a study focused on finding out the average happiness of people. The recent study found that the general happiness in Germany had slightly increased from 7.05 to 7.14.

You're probably asking yourself '7.14 what?'. Points! It's 7.14 points out of 10. We now seemingly measure happiness on a scale from 1 to 10.

In Germany, there are 16 different states and of course each one has its own average. The highest was the state the furthest north: Schleswig-Holstein with 7.44. The lowest, and coincidentally the most atheistic state, was Brandenburg with 6.76. One of the main reasons why Germans aren't happy has to do with their commute to work. (Talk about first-world problems?!?)

Another reason for rising unhappiness in the Western world has to do with sleep deprivation and bad sleeping habits. Again, this is nothing new, as this issue has been closely linked to the way modern technology, i.e. lights, surrounds us 24/7.

 

Short tangent -

Some time ago, we were out and about walking around in a small town after it had rained. Our son, only a year old, explored the wonderous marvel that is a puddle. My first thought was: "He's not wearing any wellies...his feet will get wet!" But that didn't stop our son from gleefully stepping into the puddle and experimenting with the splashing. More and more drops of joy (or dirty water) splashed on to his clothes. He smiled so much and it was pure, innocent happiness.

How often do we walk around figurative puddles in our lives rather than jumping in and finding that pure joy?

How often do we respond to rain or the tears of life with utter despair and lose all hope?

Why do we worry about uncontrollable circumstances? Why do we make excuses, like saying 'I will only jump into the puddle if I'm wearing the right shoes!'? -

 

167

This brings me to the other number that's given me lots to think about.

I follow a media platform for churches called Pro Church Tools. They started a thing called 'Seize the 167', which is aimed at using the 167 hours that are leftover in the week (post-church service) for churches to fulfill their mission.

What if we focused those hours to truly become the best we can be? After all, shouldn't we as Christians have the highest standards for when it comes to serving the kingdom of God?

I truly believe that if we shift our focus from living a happy life to serving God to the best of our abilities, happiness will follow. Jump into God's metaphorical puddle and you will find abundant joy.

Happiness cannot be the measure of life. A good life cannot be measured by how much happiness you're experiencing at any given moment. Fulfillment comes when you have finally figured out who created the rain that made the puddle in the first place.

You need to decide how much emphasis you place on personal happiness over everything else. The Bible speaks of unending, overflowing joy (Romans 15:13, John 16:22) and this joy can only come from being in a relationship with the one true God.

In Nehemiah 8:10 we read that the 'joy of the Lord is our strength'. Another article I read beautifully sums up what that means:

"Joy doesn’t just happen. It’s a product of a plan to restore our souls. An active choice to seek God’s wisdom in exchange for our own. Joy is a result of a disciplined, prioritized life guided by the Holy Spirit."

The birth of Christ two thousand years ago brought the joy of the world into the world and everybody's heart, lest you make the choice against Jesus Christ as your saviour. He is the only light to light the way in the darkness and His ways can always be trusted. So make room and watch what He does with, in and through your life.