Well do you feel your sap
rising, with today being the Spring equinox… the day in the northern hemisphere
when there is as much light as dark… hopefully heralding marginally warmer
weather in the weeks ahead?
Today is also the
International Day of Happiness, established in 2011 as a United Nations
Initiative devised by social entrepreneur and UN advisor Jayme
Illien to inspire, mobilize, and advance the idea of happiness as a
fundamental human right. And as pat of that , today as in previous years, the
World Happiness Report comes out with a league table measuring the happiness of
different countries via some arcane statistics. Despite the economic doldrums
of the past decade and the political rancor of recent years, the UK has
remained fairly steady at around 18th out of about 150 countries… With
central African countries generally rating very low and Scandinavians topping
the league every year… The USA has moved up and down the league table a bit,
which is a bit strange given that their constitution recognises “the pursuit of
Happiness” as an “unalienable Right.” But according to the report, the
headlong pursuit of wealth and/or fame which is often equated with happiness in
the so called American dream, can actually be counterproductive.
Now I have a reputation for
being Mr. Grumpy… indeed there’s a video out there somewhere of me looking
somewhat non-plussed as my Methodist colleagues gad about to the Pharrell
Williams’ song “Happy”. I’m all for promoting happiness, but wary of attempts
to measure it, package it or make it compulsory!
There are valid reasons at
times for feeling anything but happy… personal loss, illness, injury, injustice
or sympathy for others in such circumstances, can and sometimes should induce
sadness… anxiety… even anger at times… That’s some Psalms in the Bible are
Laments, with the writers telling God that they’re definitely not happy… We
could perhaps do with a few more of those in contemporary worship…
But in Christian tradition we
also find the beatitudes where Jesus said that people should feel blessed or
happy in the most counterintuitive situations… when they are poor, whether that
be materially or spiritually; when they hunger, be it for food or for
justice; when they are hated or excluded because of their faith or even when they
are mourning…
Some of that happiness, that
sense of blessing, comes from knowing, not that God is going to wave a magic
wand and make it all better, but that he is with us in the midst of the mess…
And often he makes himself manifest through the presence of others… Harbingers
of comfort, hope and happiness in the hurt…
That’s something we are called
to do for each other every day, not just as part of a UN initiative.
Shalom
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