Why I Am Happy

A great exercise to get your life into perspective is to ask yourself if you are really happy or not. Since this is a private thing, you can be brutally honest and in so doing, take inventory of your life for good or bad.

I had such an experience recently when the "happy" question popped into my mind and I decided to answer it. Here are the results of my personal Q&A on the subject.

It wasn't always so, but at this point of my life I can definitely claim to be a happy person and also to know the reasons why. Briefly, my happiness in life rests on the following:

I have peace with God.

I was baptized more than 20 years ago but it took a while to have confidence in my salvation. Of course, I fear painful or violent death, and I dread the decline of advanced age, but in the end, my hope is secure in the Lord. Each night as sleep overcomes me, my final thoughts are with Him and I am thankful for whatever measure of life He gives, being ready to go whenever He calls.

I have a meaningful task.

Some people know what they want to do from an early age. It took me well over 30 years to find direction, but once God called me into the ministry I knew that I had found the meaning for my life. What a blessed work it is to proclaim God's word, to liberate men's souls, to build up the body of Christ. What great satisfaction there is in handling daily the product of the Holy Spirit and being part of a holy and eternal community.

I have a faithful family.

The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful Christian wife and four children who are faithful to the Lord. Oh yes, we have our family traditions, "in" jokes, and shared interests, but what makes our home so joyful is the fact that all of us share Jesus Christ as Lord. There have been so many late-night phone calls with my son, Paul, talking about spiritual things; so many lively discussions with Julia, my eldest girl, about issues that she cares deeply about as a young Christian woman; so many dinners where Will and Emilie, our youngest, join Lise and me for grace and thanksgiving. Oh, what a difference our faith has made in our home and how happy I am because of it!

These three things are the cause of my happiness and even though the years bring prosperity and personal satisfaction along with a measure of loss and pain - having these three have made me the happiest man I know. What is even more amazing is that aside from all these blessings I continue to look forward to a time where I will know a happiness in Christ far superior to what I have now. How good God has been to me. How blessed is the man whose joy is the Lord, for there will be no end to him or his happiness.