Are you happy?
A very learned philosophy professor had earned not one, not two, but three post-graduate degrees. His head was full of just about everything that philosophers of every Age had to say about happiness. Still, he pondered the subject incessantly. He was so obsessed that he decided to set out in search of the wisest person in the world, wherever it took him and at whatever cost. After years of travel and at great expense, he finally was told of a woman who fit the description of the person he was searching for. And so, he set out on a rugged journey to the top of a high mountain where this wisest and happiest of all persons lived.
The woman greeted him with a warm smile and a sympathetic ear. She listened patiently as he described his pursuit of happiness with his years of study and research. At the conclusion of his long introduction, he pleaded with the wise woman to let him in on the secret of happiness -- the secret that had eluded him all his life. “Tell me now!” he demanded. But the woman would not be hurried. “I suggest we first have some tea,” she said. Calmly, she began the ceremony and slowly poured tea into the professor’s cup. She poured until the cup was overflowing. And she continued to pour until, finally, the professor told her to stop. “Just tell me the secret,” he shouted. “This I cannot do,” said the wise woman. “Like this teacup, that is full to overflowing, your mind is so full of your own knowledge and your own thoughts that you have no
room for anything more. If I tried to tell you the secret of happiness, it would only spill out. You must first empty yourself.”
What is the secret? Aren’t we all in on it? Or are we? Just to be sure, let’s empty ourselves and consult the wisest person who ever lived. Let’s ask the Lord Jesus! Happiness is doing God’s Will. The Good News about God is that He loves you. He wants you to experience the Good Life. But He has given us the freedom to say “Yes!” or “No!” We can obey or we can disobey. We can follow His son Jesus, or we can go our own way. The choice is ours to make. Happy is the person who does not lose faith in the Lord. Friends that answer to the secret of happiness is destined to endure for all eternity!
Read Jeremiah 17