I Don't Recommend Christianity

C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series and Christian apologist, once observed, “I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

Yeah, I'd agree with that statement although i really don't enjoy Port. The truth is I'm not very happy or comfortable right now. But maybe I shouldn't be. In fact, maybe it's better I'm not real happy right now. While people who are happy are certainly more healthy and successful than those who are angry and depressed, Dr. Ed Diener of the University of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told Reuters Health,

"Our findings suggest that extremely high levels of happiness might not be a desirable goal and that there is more to psychological well-being than high-levels of happiness,"

Diener and his team report in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. --Okay, maybe I'm reaching a bit with that quote!

Actually the problem is not happiness, because most of us do not even know real happiness when we see it. More than happiness, we crave power and control over our circumstances, over fellow humans, the whole creation, and even over God. We will surrender happiness to being in charge because we mistakenly believe that the latter is the realization of the former.

What most of us call happiness is really this sense of being in control. If we get hot, we are comforted in knowing that we have control of the thermostat and can change it whenever we want. We have choices. We’re in charge. If we get in a jam, there is nothing that we cannot turn around with the right credit card. Like overweight children sitting on the sofa with their Happy Meals watching a report of starving children in the Sudan, we think that we are better off. But are we? Of course, in one important sense we are, but in the big picture? And what is the big picture for that matter?

Growth and change are painful processes. They take a lot out of us and we have to work hard at them. Just as metal has to be refined in the fire and then shaped and molded to be turned into steel, so our hearts and lives need to be refined, shaped and molded to become more like Jesus. It doesn't always feel good, it lasts longer than we'd like at times, but in the end, we will like what we see, because the reflection will be more like Christ's.

So, are you happy?