I Want To Be Happy

Orig Date: 06/15/09
I was thinking this morning about things that make me happy. Like the lunch shared last week with Ginger, Kim, and Jim. It was raining cats and dogs and a few bigger animals outside, I wasn’t going to get to cut my VERY long grass, and I had to run to care for mom early that day as her caregiver had ANOTHER emergency which needed her tending to. It would have been easy to be grumpy about the bad things happening that day, and even be upset over the bigger bad things happening in my life – especially those which I can’t control. But instead, we vented about some things – and laughed about them. And we laughed about the weather. And I was HAPPY that I didn’t have to cut my grass. We put our mind to it, and we found happiness. Having, and being among friends helped.
So, this morning I considered that day, and other things, and wrote the attached. Save it for when you are having a bad day.I pray today isn’t one of them!
P.S. And of course, if it helps you to buy me lunch like Ginger, Kim and Jim did, I’d be willing to sacrifice my time to make your day better!

I Want To Be Happy

Recently a friend told me he wasn’t happy with his life. He was moving to a new city to find his happiness. Another told me he was changing jobs and had found happiness. And I was happy, for each of them, but …

Often it seems that even sunny days can dark for me. So many things to worry about! So many things to make me feel: “I’m not happy”. But then I remember, happiness is just a feeling, like hot or cold. I can make it change. I can! It’s only a lack of Joy in my heart which should really trouble me. It takes many of us, unfortunately, a long time to discover what true Joy is, and how to find it. Some of us never do. Happiness is a thing of the present moment, and it can feel so good and desirable, and can sometimes overrule all the logic and wisdom we have built up over our entire life. Maybe that’s why seeking it is often called “temptation”.

Last night I read the homily given by then Cardinal Ratzinger at Pope John Paul II’s funeral mass. In it, the cardinal notes how the pope wrote about his initial call to the priesthood:
“In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord: First: ‘It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain’ (Jn15:16). The second saying is: ‘A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep’ (Jn10:11). And then: ‘As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love(Jn15:9). In these three sayings, we see the heart and soul of the Holy Father”.

Twelve years later, the pope was called to be a bishop, and assume a greater role in the church. He wanted to stay in the area he grew up, with his friends, but:
“He heard in the church’s call the voice of Christ, and he realized how true are the Lord’s words:‘Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it (Lk17:33)’.

Finally, as Pope JPII, he traveled energetically to the ends of the world, like no pope before him. He continued to answer the call he heard:“Follow me”.
“But afterward, he increasingly entered into the communion of Christ’s sufferings; increasingly he understood the truth of the words:‘Someone else will dress you’.”(I see this last point big time as I dress my mom each day.)

As I read the words describing JPII’s life, I reflected on my own. In truth, where he answered the call "Follow me", I often followed my own ways, thinking that would "make me happy". Oh, I truly believed I was doing good and following the right "recipe" for a good life, but still often times I would stop to "taste" my creation, and know that something was missing from the formula. You see, I was striving for an eternal happiness here on earth, but my time here is not eternal. That's what was missing in my formula. I wanted out of unhappy times thinking I could find lifelong happiness. I can't; you can't.

I read in the homily about JPII a man who lived his life from his heart. he listened for God's call; he was willing to hujbly follow. He changed his life course "to be who he was created to be (Kierkegaard)", not who he wanted to be -- to "be happy". He didn't live his life to find happiness; he lived it to find Joy. Most often that meant not focusing his life on pleasing himself, but on pleasing others.

There will always be some sadness in our lives, my friends, just as there will always be some happiness, and we CAN change ourselves to be more happy: we can get a divorce, we can change our job, we can move to a far away city, we can get drunk every night. And we think we will be happy -- and maybe we will. For a time. But we will only find joy, in our heart that can't be lost, when we, like JPII listen for the words: "Follow me". We can WILL ourselves to be happy, but we will find eternal joy only in listening for the eternal call to be who we were created to be. You've got to ask yourself, and God, that question. And you WILL find happiness along the way, and unfortunately sadness, too. But as you grow in faith, in trust in God, in truth as you grow in holiness -- even though you may not think of yourself as holy -- you will find yourself growing in Joy, and that is like a happiness that doesn't end. It IS eternal.

As I glance over at the birds eating in the feeder on my mom’s front window this crisp, sunny morning, I find much Joy in the moment.I choose happiness, even in sad times.My life, like the cans I put at the curb this morning, contains much garbage, but I don’t have to rummage through it and smell the foul odors.And I don’t have to move or change jobs to make them go away.I can put those things at the curb, and trust someone else will take them away.He always does.

I pray you much happiness, little garbage, and a whole lot of Joy this day, my friends.