Skip to main content

Happy?

This morning's Thought  the Day on Good Morning Ulster...
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
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the &quo