A Greater Purpose Then Happiness

The theme over at "The High Calling several months ago was "live happy",  but I could not get it together in time for the deadline.   So not to waste it, I thought why not use it for my first post of 2016. 

In my younger years I could easily name the thing I thought would bring me happiness.  A good man with a good job, a house with children to fill it.  And after 12  years of marriage and six miscarriages our first daughter was born so we bought a house from the good wages my husband was making.  Everything was in order for happiness to flow and it did often because I  got all I wanted.  
(Anybody see a problem though in what I just wrote? in case you didn't let me help you. My early take on happiness was on the foundation I got what I wanted.)

It's a proven fact material things will not bring lasting happiness, instant gratification, yes, but as soon as one see something better, the old ceases to bring happiness. 

Through the years God has put me in several places that would not insure happiness.  In fact I became very unhappy at times yet  I knew God wanted me in those place so I stuck it out for a greater purpose then "happiness"

In September 1942, Viktor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp with his wife and parents. Three years later, when his camp was liberated, most of his family, including his pregnant wife, had perished -- but he, prisoner number 119104, had lived. In his bestselling 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life. When he was a high school student, one of his science teachers declared to the class, "Life is nothing more than a combustion process, a process of oxidation." Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then what can be the meaning of life?"

 "Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided," the author write.

  When Jesus encountered the woman at the well, He told her that if she understood the gift of God and who it was who asked her for a drink, she would have asked for something different. If you and I understood God, we would ask Him for other things…things that He plants in our spirits. Let this next year be a time to grow in Him, to understand Him more each day…then we will ask for “other things”.

Safe Haven Bible Study

 

If I could pick a theme for this year, it would be, Understanding God more.

What would you chose for 2016?