The question of all time. How to be happy. Hours and hours of scientific research has been studied, thousands and thousands of books have been written on self help, peace, joy and happiness. People search far and near, pay thousands of dollars in therapy, travel, spending money on clothes, gadgets, cars, houses, vacations, etc and usually come back to the same conclusion. Empty. There’s nothing wrong with doing those things and in fact many make us happy temporarily but there is where problem lies…it’s temporary.
As I stood and watched people come in one by one on Merry Christmas Gulf Coast an event our church puts on every year for families that need a little extra help for Christmas, I saw glimpses of hope, smiles, and a sense of relief. We were helping those who needed it in a time where life is suppose to be happy but sometimes Christmas time is often reeled in with pressure to get gifts or stress because of lack of resources or loneliness because people feel they have to keep up with the hustle and bustle alone. I looked around and everyone was smiling. The volunteers and the people in a time of need. As people came to my table needing baby gifts I was bursting with joy to help them pick out something and it dawned on me like flipping a switch in a room to turn the light on. The secret to happiness is Giving! All those other things I mentioned earlier …the traveling the therapy or self help books or material things…those are things we receive; we are getting. But when we give, an internal light turns on inside us. We stop thinking about our emptiness or sadness and start thinking of others. It brings endless possibilities when I volunteer to help others in whatever capacity. Giving a ripple affect. Whether you’re feeding the hungry, giving your time to elderly, cleaning up a yard or giving presents out. Maybe it’s a small jester like holding a door open for the person behind you or paying for the car behind you in a drive through line, or giving a smile and saying Good Morning, the affect is usually endless or sometimes contagious and that person does something small for someone else. It doesn’t matter how big or small, it’s still giving. You decided not to think of yourself and thought of someone else. That’s the secret to Happiness. In this Season, the ultimate gift was God giving us His Son Jesus to die for our sins so we could have eternal life through Him. I challenge you to consider receiving this gift in your life if you haven’t already and start giving back to your community. Because you have eternal Joy, you’ll see a change in your own happiness in the blink of an eye.
2 Corinthians 9:7 - Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
Acts 20:35 - I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Proverbs 19:17 Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.
John 3:16 For God to love the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.