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Happiness



We all seek it.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.
Helen Keller

All of us think we are truly deserving to be blessed of God, while those around us may not be. With finite judgment, we assume that they haven't gone through fire, haven't suffered like we have, haven't known the pain that has molded us.

We can't control life that happens around us; life must be lived, won't stop for us to breathe, won't stop for us to get things in order. It insists on constant movement. Unwanted, unexpected things are thrown at us constantly. The only power we have is to choose to deal with it positively or negatively. We can choose the better way, the blessed way.

To be blessed is to be happy, to live in joy, to be covered with peace.

King David, full of wisdom, beloved of God, who struggled with flesh but sought the heart of his Father, gives us guidelines for being blessed in the very first song and the very first verses of his incomparable book of Psalms.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked (people who have chosen to turn their back on his Word; self-avowed and proud sinners who dare you to challenge them; some Christians invite them into their living rooms for amusement) or stand in the way of sinners (but it is much easier to go along with the crowd than to be different, peculiar) or sit in the seat of mockers ( I know he makes fun of Christians, but I have to go along with what he says if I ever expect to get that promotion, to be elected, to be a part of the cool crowd).

But his delight (his joy, his peace, his contentment, his happiness) is in the law of the LORD ( the Word, the sword, the living bread we can freely eat, stuff ourselves with, pig out on!) and on his law he meditates day and night (it is what we think about when we rise, while we are doing dishes, on the way to work, while we teach, exercise, run the machines, stock the shelves, when we lay tired on our beds).

Consume these verses like good bread; eat them slowly, enjoy every morsel, let the taste linger in your mouth.

You will be consumed with His blessings, His joy.

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.
Willa Cather

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