A note on happiness

Do you know about The Beatitudes?  You know, the part where Jesus talks about “Blessed are …” / “Happy are…”?  This post goes into what we generally perceive as happiness – versus what Jesus meant when He talked about blessed / happy.  In both cases, as opposed to unhappy / depressed.

It starts with this:

Are we supposed to be happy?  To most people, the answer is probably obvious.  At least it may seem obvious.  But to others, like me, who have issues with depression – the answer is hardly obvious at all.  Being happy can feel like something for other people.  Whether happiness is something to experience can be a question for Christians as well.  

The preachers who are into the so-called prosperity gospel, which isn’t in the New Testament, say – of course, God wants us to be happy.  But what does Jesus actually say about being happy during His time on this planet?  Jesus’ words should be shocking to those proponents and believers of that “prosperity gospel”.

I’m asking this question because I’m trying to write this series on The Beatitudes.  You know – the part of the Sermon On The Mount where everything starts with “Blessed are …“?  Well, if you didn’t know already, that can also be translated as “happy are …“.

When you read it, it sounds kind of odd.  Actually – it can sound really odd.

Along the way, it also says –

Here’s another question.  Why is it that the people who are “happy” by earthly standards often don’t want to read this?  And why do people who are “unhappy” by earthly standards can’t wait to hear it?  In other words, why do “happy” people so often get the message of condemnation – while the “unhappy” people get the message of salvation?

I believe those questions will be answering by paying close attention to the Beatitudes.  By paying attention to both sides.  The unusual things that Jesus says will make us happy.  The things that are good for us.  But that we, if we’re honest, often would like to be for someone else to be happy about.

Throughout, it examines all sorts of passages from both the Old and New Testaments to see what Jesus was saying – as opposed to what we generally think of – when we consider the feeling of being happy.

If you’d like to check it out, the whole thing is at:
A note on happiness