Happy Not So Happy

I get a daily devotional from the H.E. Butt Family Foundation.

Received this one recently that has so much truth to it.

I saw this in high school.
I saw this in college.
I see this with my colleagues today.

Many folks who appear to be really happy are struggling.  Their lives may be full of "fun", but inside, they are longing for something more.  Something much more.

Take a read.

Out for now.........

Matt

Why Apparently Happy People Really Aren't Having All the Fun

Mark Roberts

One time, when I was a college pastor, a young woman I'll call Toni challenged my teaching that the Christian life leads to the most fulfillment and joy. "I look at all the things I'm not supposed to do," Toni began, "and then I look at my non-Christian friends. They party all the time. They get to have sex before marriage. They do all sorts of crazy things. It seems to me that they're really having all the fun. I'm not sure the Christian life is all you're claiming it to be." Though I didn't agree with her point, I did appreciate Toni's honesty. She gave expression to something that many of us have secretly thought. It may seem at times that those who "party" all the time are having the most fun.

And, for a while, they may be having the most fun, if you want to call it that. But, Ephesians 4:19 reveals something profoundly true and important. Excessive sensuality, while it appears to augment our feelings of happiness, actually has the opposite effect over time.

Ephesians 4:19 describes the Gentiles in terms reminiscent of Toni's objection: "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed." It's likely that the last phrase, "and they are full of greed," refers in this context to an insatiable desire for more impure sensual pleasures. Notice carefully the first phrase of the sentence, "Having lost all sensitivity." Here, Paul uses the perfect participle of a rare verb, apalgeo, which appears only here in the Greek New Testament. It conveys, not an excess of feeling, but rather a loss of feeling. The ESV translates this phrase as "They have become callous." The Message prefers "Feeling no pain," which is close to the literal meaning of apalgeo. 

However one translates this Greek verb, it reveals the association of excess sensuality with a lack of feeling, not with more feeling. When we continue to indulge in immoral sensual actions, we end up dulling our feelings, not enhancing them. We become callous to the pain that our sinful actions cause, both to ourselves and to others. And, in our desire for more "fun," we dive deeper into the pool of hedonistic behavior. Yet our happiness is fleeting, and feelings of true joy cannot fill our hardened hearts.

Ephesians 4:19 focuses on the negative results of carnal excess. It assumes what is not stated here, namely, that experiencing the life of God and living according to his wisdom is not only right, but also the way of true joy. And sometimes, it is downright fun.