I recently
watched a Netflix documentary called “Happy.” In the film researchers went
around the world to answer the question: What really brings happiness to a
person’s life?
In the slums of
Kolkata, India, they met a rickshaw driver named Manis Singh. Manis transports
people around the city pulling people with his one-seater rickshaw. He lives in
a small shack with his wife and two children. Manis doesn’t have an easy life.
During the summer the heat burns through his thinly-soled shoes as he pulls
people around the city, and when the monsoons arrive, the rain blows into his
shack through the blue tarps he uses as walls.
But though Manis
has very little of this world’s material wealth, the filmmakers concluded he is
basically a happy person, at least as happy as the average American. What
brings him happiness is returning home to see his young son at the top of the
hill waiting for him at the end of the day. His little boy, his loving wife,
and his newborn baby bring him happiness.
At the end of the
film the researchers suggested five things that make people happy:
- Taking time to play
- New experiences
- Close connections to friends and family
- Doing things that are meaningful
- Appreciating what we have
Watching the
documentary reinforced my own conviction about happiness: Committed Christians
are the happiest people in the world. Here are five reasons:
1. Committed Christians are the happiest of people because they are in a right
relationship with God. In John 3:5 Jesus told a very religious man named Nicodemus, “You
must be born again” At the moment of conversion when a person puts their faith
in Jesus Christ for salvation, a miracle takes place. The Holy Spirit of God
takes up residency in that person’s life. Fellowship with God which had been
broken by sin in the Garden of Eden is now restored (Genesis 2:16-17).
Ephesians 1:13-14
says: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of
truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him
with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession-to the
praise of His glory.”
Happiness for the
believer comes from the ever-present indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who reminds
us that we are God’s possession, bought with a price. The Holy Spirit is God’s
guarantee that we will one day be in heaven, and so we walk through life with
this understanding – a constant source of reassurance and happiness.
2. Committed Christians are the happiest of people because they
are forgiven. Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once
said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their
sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day! What a
difference forgiveness can make!
At the moment of
salvation, a person experiences God’s forgiveness in their life. It is a truly
wonderful thing to know that the God of the universe has forgiven you. It is no
longer necessary to live a life of burden and guilt. Forgiveness is something all
people need, and for Christians it is a source of great joy and happiness.
3. Committed Christians are the happiest of people because they are part of a
family. Many people come from very broken families. And
while all people long to love and cherish their birth families, sometimes the
relationships bring more pain than comfort. But when we become Christians, God
gives us another family of faith, with eternal bonds that reflect the love and
blessing of our Father God. We find brothers and sisters no matter where we
live – a source of happiness that is eternal.
4. Committed Christians are the happiest of people because they
have found the ultimate meaning and purpose to life. In Christ the three great existential questions of life are
answered: Where did I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going after this
life?
The documentary
“Happy” told the story of Andy Wimmer, a bank manager from the Netherlands, who
gave up his comfortable life to move to India to work with Mother Teresa’s Home
for the Sick and Dying Destitutes. He found happiness in serving the neediest
of the needy, a purpose for living that was greater than himself.
While there may be
many purposes that might bring some happiness, Christians have the greatest purpose
of all: to share the good news of the gospel to a lost and dying world. In
Matthew 28:18-19 Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Only three things
will last for eternity: the Lord Himself, the eternal souls of people, and the
Word of God. To invest one’s life in the things that will last for eternity
brings meaning to life as well as happiness.
5. Committed Christians are the happiest of people because they appreciate what
they have in life. The film “Happy” gave examples of people who were humbled by
life’s circumstances, and as a result became much more grateful for what they had. Christians
have been humbled by their sin, and have reached a point of desperation,
knowing that the life they've been living has gone terribly wrong. When we turn
our lives over to Jesus, we are born again to a new life, and we begin to
appreciate all the gifts God has given us, beginning with the gift of His own
Son.
We also
appreciate those things which Christ has saved us from: The many heartaches
and grief which a life of sin will ultimately bring. The Christian life is not
always the easiest of lives, but ultimately there is a deep sense of happiness
and joy in proclaiming four simple words. I
am a Christian. To know Jesus Christ is to find wisdom and to gain
understanding which leads to happiness.
Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains
understanding. Proverb 3:13
