Artificially Happy
There are tons of things that make me abundantly happy: hot chamomile tea with honey on a rainy day, playing music whist swinging in a hammock, hearing children playing, puppies tripping over their own feet, and my mom (to name a few). While these things make my heart flutter with contentment, there is one simple flaw all these things have in common, they have a tendency to take my happiness and flip it into grief. Sometimes my tea bag explodes and I suddenly find myself squinting and cringing from ingesting loose tea leaves. Sometimes I am swinging contently in a hammock when a carabiner breaks and I smack my head on the solid ground (true story that has happened way more times than I would like to admit). Sometimes children laughter is interrupted by instant sounds of crying when someone gets hurt. Sometimes puppies trip over their own feet and your ears are filled with a shrieking noise so powerful it could shatter glass. Worst of all, sometimes my own caretaker, my birth giver, my mother, could hurt me.
These are the things that make me artificially happy. According to the dictionary artificial is defined as something that is made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, typically as a copy of something natural. I have created these things to help ensure my own happiness. I placed my security in things I have produced myself or feelings that derive from certain situations rather than placing my faith in Christ. As a human, I tend to find my happiness in the tangible and have a hard time finding peace in the intangible. I know in my mind I have in peace in God but my heart longs for something I can see, something I can touch, something all my senses can indulge in. I have a tendency to give my heart to the artificial and then question why I end up getting hurt.
One day I realized that God gave me tangible. God gave me his word. God gave me his creation I am able to indulge in. I realized I loved tea on a rainy day, and God gave me the rain and the rain is beautiful. I realized I loved to hammock because I love trees, and God watered those trees. He sprouted them from the ground. He allows for leaves to grow. He allows the trees to bear fruit. He allows for me to sit amongst the trees and marvel in how beautiful out God is.
The most beautiful thing; however, that God did was sent his only son to die for the sins I've committed. He died for all the times I placed my hope and trust in my own selfish, artificial happiness. He died for all the times I hurt my physical body, his temple, in order to try to make myself feel something. He died for all the times I told him his word was not enough to keep me happy. He paid the wages of death and then rose from the grave. It was not until I placed full faith and full repentance and full happiness in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that I found true joy and happiness. I praise God that I am able to enjoy his creation for the rest of eternity. I praise God that he gives me little reminders of his beauty in my everyday life so that I can look forward to all the beauty that is to come. So while I sit here, drinking my coffee at an ungodly hour of the night, I am overcome with joy thinking about the sunrise I am going to be able to see in the morning crafted by the God that gave me the sun, the sky, the moon and the stars. The God that promises new life to all who believe in him.
Amen.
These are the things that make me artificially happy. According to the dictionary artificial is defined as something that is made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, typically as a copy of something natural. I have created these things to help ensure my own happiness. I placed my security in things I have produced myself or feelings that derive from certain situations rather than placing my faith in Christ. As a human, I tend to find my happiness in the tangible and have a hard time finding peace in the intangible. I know in my mind I have in peace in God but my heart longs for something I can see, something I can touch, something all my senses can indulge in. I have a tendency to give my heart to the artificial and then question why I end up getting hurt.
One day I realized that God gave me tangible. God gave me his word. God gave me his creation I am able to indulge in. I realized I loved tea on a rainy day, and God gave me the rain and the rain is beautiful. I realized I loved to hammock because I love trees, and God watered those trees. He sprouted them from the ground. He allows for leaves to grow. He allows the trees to bear fruit. He allows for me to sit amongst the trees and marvel in how beautiful out God is.
The most beautiful thing; however, that God did was sent his only son to die for the sins I've committed. He died for all the times I placed my hope and trust in my own selfish, artificial happiness. He died for all the times I hurt my physical body, his temple, in order to try to make myself feel something. He died for all the times I told him his word was not enough to keep me happy. He paid the wages of death and then rose from the grave. It was not until I placed full faith and full repentance and full happiness in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that I found true joy and happiness. I praise God that I am able to enjoy his creation for the rest of eternity. I praise God that he gives me little reminders of his beauty in my everyday life so that I can look forward to all the beauty that is to come. So while I sit here, drinking my coffee at an ungodly hour of the night, I am overcome with joy thinking about the sunrise I am going to be able to see in the morning crafted by the God that gave me the sun, the sky, the moon and the stars. The God that promises new life to all who believe in him.
Amen.
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