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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
 
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