Pursuit of Happiness

Like any American I grew up learning about our Constitution; “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These were my inalienable rights bestowed by my Creator. Now, I don’t know how hard other people have pursued happiness but I’ve done my fair share of it. I’ve found a problem inherit with the idea; however, for happiness was as difficult to capture as the wind.

How many times have you pursued something you thought you couldn’t live without only to find that when you attained it, the pleasure wore away quickly and left you hollow inside? I’ve found that happiness is too evasive to be a goal. I can only speak from my own life, of course, but it comes to me as a by-product of doing something else. It happens along the way and I’ve learned not to waste my time making it my goal…my pleasure, my fulfillment, my happiness…you know the spiel. Because of it, I’m free. Life doesn’t owe me. The Constitution doesn’t owe me. God doesn’t owe me. I’m not entitlement driven. I know that may shake some people up, but I’m not a victim anymore. Being a victim implies that a person has no choice in the matter. I always have a choice over my decision-making and emotions.

I no longer say “I can’t help myself.” I’ve grown up and pulled the rug from under all my excuses. It’s easier to blame my situation on others but in the end it doesn’t help. I’m stuck with myself. I can’t change people or things around me but I can make choices that foster growth in my life.

I would rather pursue something that can be caught. I don’t want to waste my time chasing an illusion. I don’t want to wander in the wilderness of life searching for an oasis only to wind up with a mirage. I want real water to quench my thirst. Change that produces growth can be measured…happiness cannot.

Did I pull the curtain back and spoil the illusion for you? The wizard of Oz is only a little man with a lot of smoke and mirrors. Don’t spend your life searching for him to be the answer.

“God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecc. 3:11 (New Living Translation)

God created you with a will to make choices. You are not a leaf carried by the wind but a tree whose roots can grow deeper. Something inside you cries out for the eternal, and if you are like me, you will never be satisfied with something as elusive and temporal as “happiness.”