Maybe Thomas Jefferson made a mistake.
Maybe he never should have incorporated that line from John Locke into the Declaration of Independence, the one about the “pursuit of happiness.”
Nothing wrong with happiness, of course. Everyone wants it be happy.
It’s the pursuit that gets us into trouble.
In the movie Jesus Revolution, the free-spirited Lonnie Frisbee has a conversation with a conservative pastor who is suspicious of hippies. Lonnie admits, “We might seem a little strange, but if you look deeper, if you look with love, you’ll see a group of kids searching for all the right things, just in all the wrong places.”
How often does that also apply to us? Our pursuits go beyond drugs, sex, and rock & roll. We are busy, busy, busy with overflowing calendars living in homes bursting with stuff. In our pursuit of happiness, we chase…
Pleasure.
Promotions.
Grades.
Affirmation.
Fame.
Wealth.
Security.
Comfort.
All this pursuit, and what does it get us?
Exhausted. Burned out. Riddled with Adultitis and nowhere closer to happiness than when we began.
Our pursuit of happiness has us on a treadmill. We keep walking and walking and walking, accumulating more stuff, achieving more goals, and checking off more things on our bucket lists. And just like a treadmill, no matter how much effort we put in, we remain in the exact same spot, looking for the next thing to pursue.
Maybe another American can provide a solution. Novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
I experience this time and again in my own life. I can be stressed and overwhelmed, worried about finances, concerned about the health of one of my kids, and frustrated that my schedule for the day just got blown to smithereens.
But after five minutes on the healing swing in our backyard, recalibrating my heart and soul with the pulse of God’s creation, all is well with the world. Or when I take a few minutes to review my last month’s worth of Happy Moments, suddenly happiness is right beside me.
Happiness can feel elusive sometimes, but it’s quite simple:
Spend time in nature.
Count your blessings.
Detach from sources of negativity and dwell on the positive.
Look at things from a higher, eternal perspective.
The prerequisite is getting off the treadmill.
Our problem is not our desire for happiness, it’s our inability to sit still.
Happiness is not something you have to pursue. It is right beside you, and it’s been there all along.
It’s just waiting for you to pause your pursuit long enough to notice.
🤔 I wonder…what is something you’re happy about right now?
Happiness is an attitude! Lots of us can’t find it.