Because Some Things are Better Than Happiness
A question that has confounded me for a long time involves God’s role in “the fall.” Here’s the basic cycle of thought: God created everything, and it was all good. Then Satan tempted Adam and Eve, sin entered the picture and Eden was lost. Man and woman now lived in sin, pain, suffering, hard labor. We Christians believe God is all-knowing, and all-powerful, and always right. So, theoretically, He knew they would sin and ruin the perfection of Eden; and He was powerful enough to stop them, so why didn’t He? If what He wanted and what we ultimately want is a good earth without evil and pain, why would God knowingly let that happen, when He could have prevented it?
This is a question that has been on my mind for years. It’s never been an absolute hang-up for me, because through faith I believe God never makes mistakes, so He must have done the right thing… somehow. But I couldn’t really see the angle, and so I always somewhat doubted God on this one. Why let it happen?
Recently I’ve been listening to the book by Phillip Yancey, “Reaching for the Invisible God.” I can’t directly tell you which part of the book influenced me (though there were a lot that did - I recommend checking it out!), but definitely while listening to it, some of these thoughts came back and I had an epiphany this morning driving to work.
Basically, what does everyone say they want out of life? To be HAPPY, right? If I had enough money, and no sickness, and no relationship problems, and everything was hunky dory, I’d be happy and that’s what I ultimately want. No problems. Now, these “problems” of life - we believe those to be caused by the evil that exists in the world. It’s simple math: before evil everything was fine, so when you add evil, you get the problems. Eden was perfect, then came evil, and everything went to pot. Just check Judges if you don’t believe me. Or Genesis 6.
And we have a hard time with the fact that God let that happen, because we realize in that moment of thinking it through that God essentially took our happiness away. We had it before, He was powerful enough to prevent us losing it, didn’t prevent it, therefore He was at least somewhat at the heart of us losing it. And we know from experience that many people blame God when they don’t get their way, so we do in fact feel that way. And it doesn’t make sense - doesn’t God want us to be happy? Isn’t happiness the ultimate we can get in life? So, WHY would He do that?
A simple, yet profound statement entered my thoughts this morning: some things are better than happiness. At first blush, most people would disagree with this immediately and call me crazy. There’s nothing better than being happy. But is that what God has taught us, or is that what the world has taught us? Something I’ve learned in recent years, specifically through studying the story of Job, is that happiness is usually tied to things that can be taken away. And those things are temporary, therefore happiness is only temporary as well. But there is something deeper and stronger and better - Joy, and it is found only in a relationship with God. It can never be taken away and even though our circumstances change and the things that made us happy are stripped away, we can maintain joy because it is stronger and tied to an eternal God. There are some wonderful thoughts on this subject in C.S. Lewis’ work “Surprised by Joy.”
I remember now the part of Yancey’s book this morning that got me thinking of this. He was talking about a leper who has had a way worse time since contracting leprosy than he had before he had it, yet he said that this latter part of his life has been better than before he had it! We read in Romans 8:28 that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” I urge you to read Ann Voskamp’s book, “One Thousand Gifts” for an incredible story of how God yearns to transform the ugliness in this world into things of beauty, through eucharisteo. It’s fine to be merely happy, but people who go through hard times are moved closer together, experience more love, more grace, more joy - when God is allowed to be a part of the hard times and their lives. They experience so much more than happiness - something way better, that without the bad thing could never be experienced.
It just made me think again about this question of why God would essentially allow our happiness to be taken away in “the fall.” And the answer the Holy Spirit gave to me this morning is that there are some things that are better than happiness and it was worth it to God and to us for him to allow that to happen. If we were just always with God and things were perfect for all of time, we’d be happy. But we wouldn’t know what trust is. We would have no concept of grace or forgiveness. We wouldn’t have a measuring stick for just how much God really loves us - that He would save us from the sin He allowed to enter our lives through a huge sacrifice of His own. We would have no idea how amazing Heaven truly is when we get there because we’d never lost friends and fought cancer here on earth. We would have no idea how vital love is and hope. I honestly can’t imagine my life without those things, and when I try, it saddens me deeply. To think that what I thought was wrongfully taken from me is actually something less than what I have available to me now just confirms how little I truly understand the marvelous ways of God.
The world will tell you happiness is the ultimate and you have to do whatever you can to be happy. But there are things better than happiness, and they often come from places of pain and unhappiness. You have to fight for them, struggle to understand them, wait for them. But the way to that better life Jesus promised, is only through Him. Only through the eternal. Everything that’s here will pass away, and your happiness with it. But joy is forever because it’s tied to a God that will be here forever. God knows what He’s doing, even when we don’t.
