Be Happy!

There’s such a thing as being too sober and taking things too seriously, especially ourselves. The ability to laugh at ourselves is a great asset and helps keep us humble. People who can’t laugh at their own mistakes or take the mistakes of others with a sense of humor are either too proud or have too severe a sense of life.

God intended for us to enjoy living, and He has given us the ability, senses, and environment to do so. In fact, our main purpose in life is, as Martin Luther once said, “to love God and enjoy Him forever.”

If there’s anything we Christians are supposed to be, it’s happy people. We’ve got more to be happy about than anybody else in the world. We have the happy love of Jesus, who takes all of our burdens, carries all of our cares, and lightens all of our sorrows. Jesus says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light .

If you’re finding His yoke too heavy to bear, then maybe you’re not “casting all your care upon Him.” Maybe you’re trying to carry too much and pull too hard on your own, instead of letting God do it by His power, His love, His grace, and His strength. He says, “Without Me you can do nothing.” “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you.”

When I was a young man, a missionary who had evangelized a country that was closed to the Gospel stayed with my family for a while. As he helped wash the dinner dishes one evening, I marveled at his humility, grace, and happy, cheerful spirit. Here was a man who had done great things for the Lord, humbly washing dishes with me.

Since I was planning to become a missionary myself, I asked a question that I expected he, of all people, would know the answer to: What quality do you think a missionary needs the most? I expected some solemn and profound answer from his vast wealth of wisdom and experience, so you can imagine my surprise when he paused, hands in sink, looked at me with a smile, and said, “A sense of humor—the ability to laugh when you feel like crying.”

So let’s always be able to smile through our tears. A ray of sunshine is even more beautiful in the midst of rain. Let’s have a little more sunshine and laughter, and not so much gloom and doom. The world knows enough hell; let’s show them a little more heaven. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” As the American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old Earth must borrow its mirth, but has troubles enough of its own.”

Let’s be happy! Don’t be gloomy and sullen, lest you be like old Jenny the mule. After a Sunday of constantly hearing “no” and “don’t” at the farm of his religiously strict grandfather, poor little Johnny wandered wistfully out to the barnyard and stroked Jenny’s long nose. “Dear Jenny, you must be awfully religious,” he said, “because you have such a long face—just like Grandfather’s!” That’s some people’s idea of religion. Don’t let it be yours!

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Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 ESV – I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

Psalm 1:1-6 ESV – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

John 14:1 ESV – Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.