Happiness is in the moment

Everyone wants to be happy. God wants us to be happy.  But why are some people sad?

Happiness comes from appreciating what we have, instead of brooding over what we don't have.

Happy people live and cherish the present moment. Sad people lose hold of the present moment by often regretting over the past, fearing the future and looking at what they don't have instead of being thankful for what they already have.

Advertisements today create in us an insatiable hunger for things and subtly suggest that we would be unhappy if we don't possess these things.

Jesus hinted at enjoying the present moment as the way to happiness when he invited people to follow him "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Mathew 8:20).

Jesus wanted his disciples to know that happiness does not come from the three 'Ps'- position, possessions or power but from leaving our past behind, giving our future to the Lord and enjoying the present moment that God gives us. There is the story of a King who won many battles and kingdoms. 

He wore the finest clothes and ate the best of food.  But he was deeply unhappy with life and himself and this bothered him. 

His advisors told him that if he wore the shirt of a happy man, he would experience happiness. So he ordered all his courtiers to travel the length and breadth of his Kingdom and asked them to bring him the shirt of the happiest man they meet.

The courtiers went through the busy alleys of the kingdom, the market place, the entertainment houses and almost every nook and corner of the kingdom.

Then finally they landed in a park where a man was lying down under the moonlight on a stone bench, singing with much joy.

They rushed back to the King and said "we have found the happiest man in your kingdom.  But he has no roof to live under, and does small jobs just to feed him for the day and above all, he is so poor, that he has no shirt on!" This shirtless man tells us, "My happiness comes from a restful surrender to God's Providence each day." People who cultivate the habit of saying "thanks" to God for whatever they have are generally happy people. 

Happiness therefore, is a habit, not a goal.  It is an attitude, not an attainment.  Happiness is born out of cheerfulness with the present moment, not the result of circumstances.

Jesus was happy because he enjoyed the present moment, leaving the past behind and committing the future to the heavenly father.

The Psalmist sings "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24).

Jesus taught and did exactly this.