July 3, 2022: Heart & Soul: Joy
Heart & Soul: Joy
Psalm 34:1-10
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him, and be radiant,
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord
and was saved from every trouble.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.
The young lions suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thus begins the United States’ Declaration of Independence in 1776. A fitting opening for a message the day before Independence Day. Without conflating Christian worship and national allegiance (the separation of church and state protects both!) today it seems appropriate for us to consider our faith alongside the highest ideals of our nation, so that even our Canadian friends tuning in can glean some wisdom for the living of these days!
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Why isn’t it simply, “Life, liberty, and happiness?” Or, “The pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness?” What’s different about “happiness?”
It seems our founding fathers believed government could ensure life and liberty, but happiness? Can government ensure an emotional state? Is happiness an unalienable right?
Of all the emotions available to humankind (Berkeley Wellbeing Institute names 271, for example), why did our founding fathers pick “happiness” as worthy of primary pursuit?
Brent Strawn is a professor of religion and theology at Emory’s Candler School of Theology and author of The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness: What the Old and New Testaments Teach Us About the Good Life. He talks about how the word “pursuit” has changed since our founders’ writing. We think of pursuit as chasing or seeking, but in 1776, the word “pursuit” meant to “practice” or “experience”: “not just chasing it but actually catching it, you might say.”[1] It’s less about going after the “American Dream” with its requisite “stuff” and more about human flourishing. Our founding fathers wanted human flourishing, not just for themselves, but for future generations of Americans.
In light of this idea, I want you to think about happiness as a state of being—a quality of life—more than a fleeting feeling.
Brene Brown in Atlas of the Heart offers a distinction between joy and happiness:
Joy is sudden, unexpected, short-lasting, and high-intensity. It’s characterized by a connection with others, or with God, nature, or the universe. Joy expands our thinking and attention, and it fills us with a sense of freedom and abandon.
Happiness is stable, longer-lasting, and normally the result of effort. It’s lower in intensity than joy, and more self-focused. With happiness, we feel a sense of being in control. Unlike joy, which is more internal, happiness seems more external and circumstantial.
With those definitions in mind, let us consider our scripture lesson today: Psalm 34. The superscription to this Psalm gives us insight to the backstory, and it’s actually pretty amusing:
Of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech,
so that he drove him out, and he went away.
In 1 Samuel 21:10-15 we read about King David fleeing from Saul and landing before a rival king. In order to keep his enemy from recognizing him, and surely being executed, David feigned a mental health disturbance; he scratched at the doors and let spittle run down his beard. And to his surprise, his ploy worked! David was set free—delivered from a life threatening situation.
Have you ever thought death was immanent, only to escape? What joy! What bliss! David puts quill to papyrus and writes this Psalm of praise to capture his exuberance:
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
In the original Hebrew, Psalm 34 is an acrostic poem . . . each stanza begins in order, alphabetically. As if David wants to employ every possible letter in praise to God.
But I want to focus on verse 8:
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
The word “happy” here is sometimes translated as “blessed” or “content.” David is reminding us that when we take refuge in God—when we hide ourselves in God—the result is we are blessed, content, happy. Human flourishing!
Here David gives us the key—the prescription for happiness. And it’s not a beautiful house with a white picket fence with 2.5 kids, it’s not cars or travel or a stock portfolio—no. The prescription for happiness—enduring flourishing—is taking refuge in God.
Here’s why.
You can have all the things money can buy and be completely and utterly miserable. On the other hand, a simple life can sometimes offer opportunity for optimal flourishing. Happiness is not a guarantee. Our founding fathers recognized this. It’s not “life, liberty, and happiness.” It’s “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The truth is that life brings challenges to everyone. Things happen in the world that rock our equilibrium. Tragedy strikes. Diagnosis comes. Relationships fracture. There is plenty of heartbreak for everyone.
David writes in Psalm 30: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Both are temporary. Happiness is different. It’s a state of flourishing. “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Happiness can endure through it all.
How?
Back to Brene Brown: she suggests that long-lasting happiness is normally “the result of effort.”
· This effort looks like learning to learning how to appreciate good things—even little things—when life gets hard.
· This effort looks like connecting with others—drawing strength from connections when life hurts.
· This effort looks like living life with meaning and purpose—like believing in and working toward alleviating another’s suffering even in the midst of your own.
And most of all, this effort looks like practicing faith, taking refuge in God, grounding yourself in the love and grace and mercy and peace of Christ—the peace that passes understanding. Through pursuit. Through practicing the faith. And there in that refuge, the rains can pour, the storms can rage, the winds can blow—and those hiding in the arms of God are undaunted.
There are so many evidence-based practices to build this kind of happiness—this long-lasting state of flourishing. For your “homework” this week, I offer two of these evidence-based practices, in handy dandy alliterative form for easy remembering:
1. Relish. Stop and “smell the roses.” “In a study by Fred Bryant of Loyola University Chicago, participants who took Savoring Walks daily for a week reported greater increases in happiness than participants who went for walks as usual. ‘Making a conscious effort to notice and explicitly acknowledge the various sources of joy around us can make us happier,’ write Bryant and Joseph Veroff in the book Savoring.”[2] So take a hike! Every day, stop and relish the little things that bring you joy.
2. Reconnect. Connecting with others is another evidence-based way to build a resilient happiness. So a second homework option is to connect or reconnect with someone. Call up that friend you haven’t spoken with in a while. Go have coffee with a neighbor. Offer a random act of kindness to someone—an extra-large tip to your server at dinner or pay it forward at the drive thru. In one study, “participants who performed five acts of kindness on one day a week for six weeks reported increases in happiness. (This didn’t happen when they spread out their acts of kindness across the week, perhaps because a single kind act may not feel noteworthy on its own.)”[3]
These are challenging days. We’re all going through some things as we all find ourselves somewhere in the birth canal between one epoch and another. But I believe we, as individuals and as a community of faith, can maintain a state happiness and wellbeing even in the midst of these hard times.
My hope and prayer is that you will flourish! That you will enjoy an enduring happiness even in the face of trials. And through it all, may you “taste and see” that indeed, the Lord is good.
[1] https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/06/er_pursuit_of_happiness/campus.html
[2] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_science_backed_strategies_for_more_happiness
[3] Ibid.