This Yuletide season, the proverbial greeting is “Merry Christmas”, wherein merry here means joyful. For most of us, greeting everybody with that phrase is just part of the cliché associated with our modern commercialized Christmas. The fact is, Jesus himself commanded us, ” Always be joyful.”1 Thessalonians 5:16.
Look around, are the people we love happy? Are you happy? How come joy is so elusive when God himself presented us with this gift? In this age of instant coffee and on line shopping joyfulness becomes an expensive commodity because we anticipate the wrong circumstances – The BAD that shouldn’t happen and the GOOD that doesn’t happen. It’s funny, but it keeps us from seeking joy as a possibility. At the end of each tiring day, after all the nice things that happened along with the discouragements of the whole 24 hrs, happiness is still a choice. So, how do we make that choice?
Choose to hear the good news. Look at the cross to see the whole story – Jesus came and died on the cross to tell us how much He love us; While waiting for His return He offers a relationship with us so He can make a difference in our lives; He is with us in all our daily troubles and is preparing us an eternal joy, which we can start to have now. There, how’s that for a newsflash, far better than no work holiday, right?
Choose to do what God says. “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Luke 2:15 Those shepherds must have been scared, confused or even skeptic on what they have been told that time, yet they chose to follow God, and it made them happy. God might be telling us to do or give up some things we really enjoy. We can ignore it, because it’s hard to renounce something we enjoy, but one thing is for sure, ignoring the Lord will make us miserable because all His commands are for our own good and joy.
Choose to tell someone else. Wish you could give more than just presents from a store? If we’ve got our Christmas list covered, or if all our daily needs are met, let’s consider ourselves blessed in many ways and give back to the world in our own way by telling a friend how much joy we have living in God’s love. Share Jesus. Express how a changed life made our life happy. “With joy they should tell what He has done.” Psalm 107:22 Not only do simple acts of altruism benefit those in greater need, stepping outside of ourselves and thinking about others can feed the soul - and in the process, lift our spirits.
Joyfulness doesn’t mean living a problem-free life; instead it is living a happy life despite of. We don’t need self-help books and seminars to have one. Walking with God is the best adventure, finding God is the best achievement, and having God as companion is the best source of happiness! – This is the “New Science of Happiness”. Live life!