Real
Happiness
by:
Pastor Dan M. Appel
OK, so you've suffered through 500 different versions of Frosty the Snowman; you've eaten so much Christmas candy that you're going to have to spend the next month at the gym working out to get back to your pre-Christmas weight; and you have finally gotten the 8 ugly ties you received from the relatives returned; and now you're ready for the New Year, the New Century, and the New Millenium.
You've laid in 100 gallons of water in case the water supply doesn't survive Y2K; you've set up the bicycle powered generator so that you can operate all of your toys and get healthy at the same time; you have enough dried beans and rice stocked away to last a 6 month siege and enough chips and pop to make it through non-stop bowl games from dawn to dusk; and now you are sitting there thinking about what is preparing to happen.
A new millennium doesn't happen that often on our planet. Very few, relatively speaking, experience the dawn of a new century. But, it takes ten new centuries to make a new millennium. And you are one of the lucky ones who is going to experience it. Or, are you?
True, we've just about mapped the whole human genome. We can travel faster than the speed of sound. We can clone sheep and plants, and maybe even a few body parts. We can communicate globally at virtually the speed of light over the Internet, and have conquered the heights of Mount Everest and the depths of the Marianas Trench. We've been to the Moon and the wreck of the Titanic. Virtually all of us have cell phones and pagers; the stock market is over 10,000 and the Nasdaq is over 4000; and there is hardly a home on the planet without television and indoor plumbing. Yet, are we really any better off?
Somewhere in the back of all of our minds is the nagging question: "We now have all of the stuff that was supposed to make us happy; but are we?" Technology has revolutionized our lives, but have we really become better people? Even though we have suffered through modern art and atonal music for 30 years now; even though we've experienced a sexual and a gender revolution, have tried all manner of designer drugs, drinks, and coffee are we really happier? Are our lives any more fulfilled?
Think about it for a minute. We may have conquered the Black Plague and Smallpox, but our generation has seen the spread of an epidemic that will kill millions as AIDS continues it's steady spread over our planet. Gays and Lesbians have fought for and won rights and visibility that transcend what the straight community enjoys and they are still the percentage of the population with one of the highest suicide rates in the world. More of us are addicted to more drugs than at any time in the history of the planet. Our environment is a mess; morally we are approaching the level of Neanderthals and Cretans; crime is rampant; homelessness is growing; the disparity between the haves and the have-nots is widening and . . . well I could go on and on, but won't.
The point is that even though the advertising promises that if we drink the right beer, use the right toothpaste, drive the right car and use the right cell phone we'll be happy - we're not. Even though we've climbed the career ladder to the very top and amassed more things than anyone else in the history of the planet has ever had, we're not happy. In fact, it seems that the harder we try to find happiness and fulfillment the more it eludes us. Even as we chase the elusive butterfly of meaningfulness more frantically, we live lives with less peace and more frustration than ever before. We have followed scores of self-help gurus; have investigated milleniums of philosophy; have followed every hedonistic whim and bodily urge to the point of exhaustion and still aren't happy. The dawning of the Age of Aquarius has brought anything but harmony and understanding and we have grown weary of it's vague and broken promises and it's endless stream of superficial relationships. MTV and trash TV and the latest Hollywood comedy or adventure movie have failed to fill the empty hole in our souls and we sit on the edge of this millennium wondering if there is, after all, any real happiness to be had
I believe that there is, and I'd like to suggest that maybe it's because we have been looking for in all of the wrong places that we have failed to find it.
Two thousand years ago, the One whose birth we measure our years and millenniums by told us that the only real source of happiness lies in one very special relationship. "I am here," He told his followers, "so that you can have life more abundantly than anything you've ever imagined." You will find that promise in John 10:10 in the Bible. Jesus, the author of those words, promises us "Peace that passes any human comprehension," hope in a world where there is little, a better tomorrow and a more fulfilled today. He promises to make us happy and content. In short, he promises us everything we are really searching for. It comes not from earning it, or deserving it, or even from demanding it. Rather, it is all ours in a single relationship a relationship with Him that is personal, and intimate, and real.
You've tried everything else and discovered that it didn't fill the empty spot at the center of your soul. Why not give that relationship a try here at the beginning of our New Millennium. If you would like to know more about what it means to have a relationship with a personal, caring God, we'd like to share what we've discovered with you.
Why not drop by and let us tell you about it. Or, visit one of our Saturday services. Or, give us a call. That's why we're here.
© Dan M. Appel
