Pride and joy

It always starts the same:  hurt, scars, unmet expectations.  Maybe you had an absent parent (physically or emotionally).  Maybe it was abuse.  Maybe it was a lifetime of unkind words from peers who couldn't appreciate your differences.  The end result, however, is also the same:  hurt, scars, and unmet expectations.

So now there's a hole in your life, a need to fix the wrong; it's a need to find that happiness that was taken from you so early on.  So you pursue the things in life that make you happy.  You play video games, but they become boring.  You read books, but they become predictable.  As you grow up, you begin to pursue other interests: sex, movies, good times.  You throw yourself into schoolwork.  You pursue colleges.  You get in, and you pursue a degree.  You graduate, and you pursue a career, a spouse, a significant other.  But the happiness doesn't last, so you throw yourself into these things with a fervent passion.  You pursue a promotion, children.  You take pride in these things, because they are worthy goals.  But when the happiness doesn't last, you pursue more.  Your pursuits could be perfectly fine:  new hobbies, a new home, a new car.  They could be destructive:  alcoholism, affairs, drugs.  Regardless, the happiness doesn't last.

That's because you don't need happiness.  Happiness is temporary, and the things you pursue are temporary.  Movies end, books have a last page, and people can be taken (or walk away) from you; people die.  You will die.  Happiness is good, but it isn't what you need.  What you need is something permanent.  What you need is something that can't be spoiled by rain or snow, by car accidents and medical crises; you need joy.

Joy is permanent.  As such, it can only come from something that is permanent and eternal, and there is only one Thing in this universe that is eternal:  God.  So let me ask you:  are you pursuing happiness that will fade, or are you pursuing joy that will remain?