PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS
The Beatitudes – Matthew 5:1-12
Everybody I know wants to be happy. However, it appears to me that some folks may not understand what true happiness is.
There are those, for example, who seem to think that lots of money would make them happy; yet, some of the wealthiest people in the world have said that fortune brought misery to their lives.
Others seem to think that if they could just be famous, they would be happy; yet, many famous folks come to the end of their way feeling unhappy due to loneliness and sadness.
Neither fame nor fortune brings true happiness to any individual. This is as true today as it was when Jesus preached a sermon about happiness during his ministry on this earth.
Times have changed, but the search for happiness is still one of our top priorities.
Perhaps we would do well to adopt as one of our main goals in life: To be happy and to make other happy.
One of the memories that I cherish of my father-in-law is the note that he wrote to himself and taped on the mirror into which he looked every morning when he shaved.
The note read:
“Thursday mornings
Go to nursing home
Make people happy.”
Whether in a nursing home or not, we all want to be happy. We want to wake up each morning with a reason for living yet another day . . . with an inward feeling of assurance that life is worthwhile . . . with no thought as to whether or not our needs are going to be met that day . . . with as bright an outlook on life as possible . . . with the hope that someone who needs a word of encouragement will cross our path that day; so, “Lord, help me to encourage someone today.”
My father-in-law discovered happiness by making others happy. He could not make people happy by giving them money; nor could he make them happy by offering them fame. He did so simply by going where there was a need for encouragement. Oftentimes all he had to offer was a smile, a handshake, or a pat on the back, without saying a word. His actions spoke, as if to say, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee.”
When Jesus saw a multitude of people searching for happiness, he had pity on them – and then, “He went up on a mountainside and sat down, and he began to teach them.”
“How to be Happy” was the theme of the first lesson Jesus taught in His “Sermon on the Mount”. Here was the Great Physician, taking time to sit down with those longing for a happy life, giving them a prescription consisting of eight components of the blessing of happiness.
Think of these eight components as noted minister-author Robert Schuler and my long-time friend Harmon Born, along with other respected servants of God have suggested: BE Attitudes – the person God wants me (us) to BE.
When a medical doctor prescribes an antibiotic, the patient is advised to take the entire dosage over a period of time in order to realize the full benefit of the prescription.
Jesus our Great Physician advises those who desire true happiness to incorporate all eight BE Attitudes into daily life if they (we) want to benefit fully from God’s Prescription for Happiness. Amen.
PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS SERMON II: BE A MOURNER
“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)
“O the happiness of those who mourn!”
Most of us enjoy laughing. To me, there is no greater therapy than to laugh. Perhaps you have heard it said that laughter is the best medicine.
A counselor may advise you to deal with your stress by being around folks who enjoy having a good time by laughing together.
In his wisdom, however, Solomon reminded us that “there is a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to dance and a time to mourn.” (Eccl. 3:4)
The word mourn used by Jesus was the strongest word for sorrow in the language which he spoke. It had to do with the passionate grief that someone felt over the loss of a loved one.
It is similar to the word that was used in the Hebrew language to describe Jacob’s grief when he believed that Joseph, his son, was dead.
It was an expression that defined the kind of grief that takes hold of you with such a strong grip that you cannot hide your sorrow. It has to do with a mourning which causes your heart literally to ache. It is the sorrow expressed by sobs and tears that cannot be held back.
Jesus: “Blessed are those who mourn like a person grieving for loved ones who have died.”
It is said that the Arabs have a proverb that goes like this: “All sunshine makes a desert.”
Stop and think about that for a moment. Any place where there is nothing but sunshine all the time will soon become parched and hardened - to the extent that nothing will grow in that place. It becomes a desert.
The rain is just as necessary as the sunshine if a crop is to bear fruit.
Someone said to me shortly after my mother’s untimely death many years ago, “Into every life some rain must fall, but back of the clouds the sun is always shining.”
By the grace of God, I learned from that experience that, first of all, no one is exempt from sorrow; secondly, God works through our grief to strengthen our faith; thirdly, those who trust in the Lord will be comforted by His presence, but also will bow in submission to His will.
When sorrow comes into our lives, we find ourselves taking the things of God more seriously than ever before; and if we respond as we should, we will give of ourselves to the ministry of healing:
“I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she,
But, oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!”
We might also see in this beatitude the sorrow that we feel when we see the pitiful plight of those in foreign countries - or in our own country - who are suffering; their suffering might be due to the death and destruction wrought by war, or famine, or catastrophic events of nature, or disease.
Certainly we mourn at the sight of children starving to death . . . grieving moms and dads whose sons and daughters have been killed in combat . . . in our own country of the separations that occur following tragedies – and on and on we could go describing the horrors that are brought into our homes via television news every day and night.
There are two thoughts suggested by this beatitude: (1) the comfort that is ours when we ourselves walk in paths of sorrow, and (2) the comfort that is available to us when we witness the horror of sorrow throughout the world; but the main thought I think is this: “Blessed are those who are desperately sorry for their own sin, for they shall be comforted.”
Perhaps you have heard me say before that scripture is multi-layered in its meaning and application. The longer you meditate on scripture – and in particular meditate on any great saying of Jesus – and the more you ask the spirit of God to guide you in your understanding, the more apparent it becomes that there are multiple applications of scriptural truth to your life.
Yes, the happiness of mourning has to do with the comfort that we receive from the God of all comfort - when we ourselves walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We shall be comforted!
Yes, the happiness of mourning has to do with the comfort that is available to us when we weep over the plight of people of the world, in much the same way that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. We shall be comforted!
Yet, we must not overlook the application of this second beatitude to the personal weeping that we need to experience because of the sins that for so long kept us from being the person God wanted us to be.
The most sobering experience of my life occurred on a Saturday morning when I was struck by a sense of my own unworthiness. There I sat in my recliner, feeling heart-broken over my own failures.
I was appalled at the havoc wrought by sin in the world. I visualized the Cross of Jesus; and what an impact it made on me to realize that my sins helped crucify the innocent Son of God; yet He suffered and died, not only for the whole world, but for me too! “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
It was as a result of that experience of penitence that for the first time in my life I felt truly comforted. Then I understood what the Psalmist meant when he said so many years ago, “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Rather than despise my brokenness, God gave rise in my heart and mind to a peace that has made me content in whatsoever state I find myself.
This is not to say that I feel at ease in Zion; it is to say that I feel forgiven and therefore free from the shackles of unhappiness.
Now I can tell you by personal experience that the joy of forgiveness comes by way of the intense sorrow of a broken heart.
Here’s the way I now read the second beatitude:
“O the happiness of the person whose heart is broken due to his own sin as well as the loss of a loved one and the suffering of the world, for out of his or her deeply felt sorrow will come the joy that only God can grant, both in the here and the hereafter.”
A verse to remember: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and comes to the rescue of those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) Amen!
