This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 31, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
As I quickly skimmed through the news stories on Fox News Digital this morning, a news item grabbed my attention. It was a story about a university in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Centenary College, offering a new Master of Arts degree. The degree is in, — of all things, — “Happiness Studies.” The uniqueness of the degree caused me to re-read the article.
Yes, I had read correctly, — it was indeed a Master’s degree in “Happiness Studies,” but, after re-reading the piece, I decided it wasn’t as frivolous as it first sounded.
Trying to find happiness, especially in difficult times, has been a preoccupation of humanity for centuries. I was practically raised on Abraham Lincoln’s aphorism, “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Many other famous people have said somewhat the same thing. Aristotle said, “Happiness depends upon ourselves,” and William Arthur Ward declared, “Happiness is an inside job.” And there are many more philosophers, sophisticated and homespun, who have expressed similar thoughts about happiness.
My favorite quotation, attributed to Albert Einstein, is “A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin, what else does a man need to be happy?”
Of course, that’s one man’s opinion, and it underscores most Christian pastors’ belief that “happiness” and “joy” are not the same thing, true “joy” not found outside of God. Mother Theresa once said, “Joy is prayer, joy is strength, joy is love, joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
Even more appropriate than the words of Mother Theresa are the words of the Apostle Paul in his “prison epistles,” especially Philippians, which are probably the most “joyful” books in the Bible. Perhaps Psalms 16:11 sums up what I’m trying to say here: “In Your Presence is fullness of joy.”
As I think about what is happening in the world today, I find St. Paul’s words in Philippians 4:4 challenging, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice!” It’s a challenge to find happiness today, much less, joy.
NPR Digital News explained the results of a recent survey which showed 80% of Americans indicating they feel more anxious about inflation, global uncertainty and the war in Ukraine, more so than any other issues in recent years. Stress, anxiety, and depression are widespread. Inflation, global uncertainty, and the war in Ukraine come on top of already being worn out from the pandemic. It’s sort of a feeling of widespread grief, and people try to cope with rheir stress in unhealthy ways.
So, a couple decades ago, when we thought about and talked about happiness and joy, it was not in the midst of such global uncertainty, thus our ideas were more lighthearted.
In today’s uncertain world, many folks, like me, find peace in reading Scripture-based night-time devotionals and in other ways to stay connected to God.
During the anxieties and uncertainties of World War II, my family and I (I was 5 years old when the War began, 11 when it ended) found peace in our church. I wrote about that in my poem, “This Easeful Hour Made Halcyon,” published in my book, Open Prairies. Here are the closing lines of that poem:
the kindly old pastor,
in cassock and surplice,
slow-moving and serene,
lights the candles himself
this easeful hour
made halcyon
by homily, hymns and prayers
in the midst of bellicose news
from the blood-stained trenches
of a world at war
Reading, hearing, and singing the Word of God brought us great joy during those difficult years. In my opinion, that’s the answer today.
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.