When Jan 1 is ushered in, people across our land and many around the world utter the phrase ‘Happy New Year!’ I remember a child’s song, If your happy and you know it clap your hands…. It goes on to say if your happy and you know then your face will surely show it…. We live in a land where the core values are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But is this pursuit of happiness out of place? Is this desire and drive to be emotionally content the purpose of our lives?
For many their pursuit of happiness overshadows all other virtues, even life, liberty, children, spouse, and God take a second seat to their own happiness. in many ways happiness is a very self-centered pursuit that can quickly be overcome by greed, envy, sloth, excess, and debauchery.
One of the greatest examples is marriage. A marriage between a man and a woman can be good but not always happy. If the central pursuit of one’s marriage is his or her own happiness it will almost surely lead to divorce. No marriage can produce perpetual happiness. In fact there are times and even seasons when this most intimate of human bonds produces the opposite of happiness.
What if we suspend or at the least minimize our pursuit of happiness for another virtue, goodness?
The Rosh Hashanah greeting is actually “Shana Tova u’metuka,” “Have a good and sweet year.”
https://www.bible.com/en/reading-plans/12652
Our Jewish brothers and sisters don’t greet one another on the new year with ‘Happy New Year’, but rather ‘Have a Good Year’. This comes from the creation account where God created and then recognized it as good.
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”
Genesis 1:31 NIV
https://genesis.bible/genesis-1-31
How much of life is filled with events, tasks, seasons, and relationships that may not produce happiness but are good? The difference is really not subtle.
Happiness is fleeting and can change with the wind. One’s mood regardless of the celebration occurring around can be gloomy. But goodness is a state of being. Such a state of beings’ value, quality, and quantity of goodness is not dependent on an emotion. Rather it is dependent upon the nature of that which exists.
To focus on and pursue that which is good is not without reward. For it is often in these endeavors that the greatest joy and happiness can emerge. However the happiness emerges as a byproduct or result of the nature of its goodness. This is most clearly understood in our relationship with God.
Our pursuit of our God is good but it does not always bring me happiness. There is rarely happiness in the pruning and repentance work that occurs in this holy relationship. But those activities are good. And their byproduct is shalom – a peace that includes joy, that surpasses all understanding.
The Rosh Hashanah greeting of “Shana Tova u’metuka” means to have a good and sweet year.
On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish custom is to dip apple slices in honey. The apple represents our wish for a good year. An apple is healthy – it is good for us. However, we dip it in honey to express our desire that what is good for us also be experienced as something sweet.
https://www.bible.com/en/reading-plans/12652
May the Lord bless you as you turn away from the insatiable pursuit of happiness and dwell in his abundant goodness.