WHO does not want to be happy? Who does not want to enjoy good health and long life? Who does not wish to see peace and security? These are the normal desires of everyone. Sadly, though, reality often goes contrary to our wishes. The world today is full of distress. Earth wide, disasters, calamities, wars, diseases, crime, and injustices are constantly on the increase. How can peace and happiness be found?
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To those who claim to be practical and realistic, the way to happiness is through wealth and riches. They feel that money is the best safeguard; with it one can lead a comfortable life, with no more worries about food and shelter. True, money can bring protection and benefit in some ways. But is wealth really the most important thing in life? Can money provide lasting protection? How reliable is material security? Business failures, economic depressions, crime, violence, wars, and disasters have ruined the fortunes of many in an instant. Devastating experiences of this sort are too numerous to recount.
Others pursue fame and position. They feel that if they become prominent, they can tower over others and be admired by them. Yet, no matter how successful a person may be, he must admit that circumstances can change quickly and he can lose his position overnight. The satisfaction that fame brings is only short-lived. And once a person’s life comes to its end, the glory and the fame he enjoyed pass away with him.
Many also feel that life is so short and human affairs are so changeable and unpredictable that they should just pursue life’s pleasures and have a good time while they still can. Recreation and entertainment do have their place in life. But can they provide lasting happiness and satisfaction? When the excitement is over, how does a person feel? After all the feasting and the merrymaking, those who indulge in them are often left feeling empty and exhausted, and it all adds up to a life devoid of meaning.
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Wealth, fame, prominence, pleasures, revelry—none of these can bring lasting happiness and contentment. Why not? It is because those who seek happiness through these means have aimed in the wrong direction and followed the wrong path. They are concerned only with gratifying their physical or material desires. When all is said and done, they are left with the same spiritual void, longing, and frustration that they started with. They have found no real contentment.
Birds and beasts are satisfied when their physical needs—eating and sleeping—are met. Humans, however, have needs far beyond these basic necessities. That is because animals are not endowed with a conscience, as we are. Wild beasts do not have a capacity for spiritual things, whereas humans do. Animals are not concerned with the purpose of living, but humans yearn to know the meaning of life. To live with real happiness, we must fulfill the needs of the heart and the mind. The question we now face is, How can such needs be satisfied?
For our life to be meaningful, we must first understand why we are here. Throughout history, thinking people have often wondered: ‘Where did man come from? What is the purpose of life? Is there a Sovereign Lord of the universe? If so, does he care about mankind? What is his purpose for us?’ All of these are significant questions, but who can provide the satisfying and correct answers? Can religion do so?
HAPPINESS—FROM HEARING AND DOING
Once a woman who heard Jesus teach called out: “Happy is the womb that carried you and the breasts that you sucked!” Likely, she was aware that the Bible elevates motherhood, and apparently she thought that Mary was blessed or could especially be happy that her son Jesus was such an excellent, righteous teacher. But Jesus knew that there was a greater happiness than that of paternity or maternity, even maternity of the Messiah. He replied: “No, rather, Happy are those hearing the word of God and keeping it!”
Observe the emphasis Jesus put on being involved with—hearing or reading—“the word of God.” We are repeatedly assured in the Bible of the profit of being occupied with God’s Word. The first Psalm says about the ‘happy man’: “His delight is in the law of Jehovah, and in his law he reads in an undertone day and night.” so we can ask, ‘Am I finding happiness from that source?’
The Scriptures are like a storehouse of happiness, for they enrich the mind and the heart. They enliven the spirit. They give hope. They point the way to a productive, pleasant life. They contain thoughts of God that we can reflect on at any time. They are the basis for true wisdom.
‘Keeping the Word of God,’ Jesus said, is also involved in our being happy. Earlier we noted that this proves true in that we thus avoid problems. But it is also true from other standpoints.
Many persons today are predominantly concerned with “ME.” They are very egocentric in their efforts and concerns. However, are they truly happy? In contrast, the Word of God breathes the spirit of being interested in others, of giving, of helping other persons. We can see this exemplified in Jehovah himself, for he is the One who “loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might . . . have everlasting life.” Jehovah is called “the happy God.”Similarly, “Christ did not please himself,” but died in our behalf.