The Secret to Happiness

I gave a speech at the Bridge yesterday. I thought it went really well, so I will reproduce the text here:

As Lipu brought out so clearly, it is foolish merely to pursue the things that make us happy here and now. Furthermore, it is actually a sign of wisdom to prepare in advance for our final--and eternal--stage of life. This naturally leads us to the question how to prepare for eternal happiness. Before we talk about that, I want to make a few things clear: 1) When I say happiness, I do not mean the happiness that only begins at some point in the future after you die; instead, I mean happiness that begins now and continues even after you die. 2) When I say happiness, I don't just mean good feelings. I mean something much bigger than this. In fact, I am going to switch to the word joy instead of happiness, and when I say joy, I mean the following: "the character quality of maintaining a good attitude even when faced with unpleasant conditions". Now let's return to the topic of preparing for eternal joy. I believe that joy depends on two things: a purpose and a faith. Let's talk about each of these in turn.

Why is purpose important? Firstly, purpose gives meaning to suffering. None of us likes to suffer, but we all will experience suffering in our lives. However, if our suffering results from the pursuit of our goal, then it is much more bearable. Athlete sometimes boast about how many bones they have broken in pursuit of winning a game. Suffering can even be a source of honor. We honor those who give their lives for their country. On the other hand, if we suffer just because we were being careless, this is much less bearable--like if you are hit by a car because you did not wait for the green light to cross the street. When we suffer for our mistakes, it feels meaningless. If we suffer because we were diligently pursuing a worthy goal, it feels meaningful. Like the Bible says:

Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. (1 Pet 2:20)

The second reason that purpose is important is that it gives me a higher perspective when facing difficulties. There is a Chinese saying, "不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。" When I am in the middle of a situation, it is hard to have a clear perspective. However, with a purpose bigger than myself, I can objectively assess the difficulty and find courage to persevere. With a purpose, I can realize that difficulties are "just par for the course" and "take them in stride". However, without such a purpose, I will just want to give up. So we clearly see that the first thing upon which joy depends is purpose in life. Why? It gives meaning to suffering, and it provides perspective when facing difficulties.

The second thing that joy depends on is faith. I define faith to mean this: "confidence that actions rooted in good character will yield the best outcome, even when I cannot see how". Faith provides the reason to persevere in doing what is right even when facing difficulties. Without it, there is no rational argument to persevere. I mean, if there is no guaranteed reward for living a life of loving my neighbor as myself, why bother? Of course, this definition of faith assumes that your goals are good as well as the actions you take to pursue them.
This is an important point. Not all goals are created equal. The quality of your goal directly affects your joy. Just having a goal is not enough; you need a goal big enough to eclipse the trials endured in its pursuit. If I set the goal to taste every flavor of every brand of ice cream in the world, that is a big goal, but is it a quality goal? I don't think so. In general a goal that merely pursues the gratification of our own desires does not hold up under pressure. However, goals that focus on meeting the needs of others tend to inspire us to greatness.

You may ask what is the rational basis for my confidence that actions rooted in good character will yield the best outcome, even when I cannot see how? Because I believe in a personal Creator God who is perfectly wise, powerful, loving, and just, I have this confidence. In the Bible, God promises that:

He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. (Rom 2:6-8)

So then, put as simply as possible, the secret to eternal joy is this: 1) to dedicate yourself to a high-quality, eternal goal and 2) to pursue that goal with a rational confidence. Now you may ask, "What exactly is an eternal goal?" Let me answer that by describing Lipu's and my daily life.

First of all, both of us have a very clear life purpose. We believe that the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. So this is our life goal. Now "glorify God by enjoying Him forever" is a bit abstract, so let's try to break it down. The glory of God is the beauty of his manifold perfections. Think of a diamond. A cut diamond has many, many surfaces, and each one reflects the light in its own beautiful way. God is like this. His every character trait is perfect, flawless. Perfectly loving, perfectly just, perfectly wise, perfectly powerful, etc. And each one of these character traits, when you seriously meditate on it, you discover that this is what makes God beautiful. Okay, now this is what "the glory of God" is. Now, what does it mean "to glorify God"? Let's say that you are in a submarine and there is a diamond in a boat on the surface of the water. How can you see it? With the periscope. The periscope has a series of mirrors that reflect the light so that you can see the diamond even around a corner. That is what I want to do with my life. I want people to see and admire God's beauty. However, since he is usually invisible, I use my life--my decisions, my actions, my attitudes--to reflect his beauty. Specifically, as I love my neighbor as myself, others are able to see a little glimpse of God's love for people; as I delight in and invest in my relationship with God, others are able to see his loveliness.

Back to Lipu and me, our goal then is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. So, practically speaking, how do we pursue this high-quality, eternal goal? Well, in fact, our whole day revolves around it. It starts every morning at 5:30 a.m. when we get up to read the Bible, to sing songs of worship to our God, and to pray together. For those who do not have these habits, they might sound like a drudgery. But actually for us, these practices both lay the foundation for our daily joy as well as provide a means to express that joy. These two verses describe the joy we feel as we study the Bible and sing songs of worship to God:

Oh, how I love your instructions!
I think about them all day long.

How sweet your words taste to me;
they are sweeter than honey. (Ps 119:97, 103)

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
I long, yes, I faint with longing
to enter the courts of the Lord.
With my whole being, body and soul,
I will shout joyfully to the living God (Ps 84:1-2)

Then when we start to work, we know that what we are doing is not for ourselves, but for God’s glory. So whenever we face difficulties, we know that we don’t need to give up, because God will provide a solution for us as long as we ask. During the week, we spend time to eat with friends to tell them about our God. And every weekend we come to the Bridge to spend time with other Christian brothers and sisters. We share our joy and encourage each other. You see that 24/7 we are heading towards our high-quality, eternal purpose of glorifying God by enjoying Him forever. And we have faith that every single activity we do both pursues that goal as well as sustains our eternal joyfulness.

I want to close now by encouraging each of you to consider well what your life goal is. Your goal and your faith are the secret to joyfulness--both now and at the last stage of your life. Do you still remember that Lipu talked about Judgment Day a few minutes ago? Jesus said said that on Judgment day, God will speak one of two sentences to each person. That sentence will determine whether you experience eternal joy or eternal sorrow in your last stage of life:

Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! (Matt 25:23)

You wicked and lazy servant! ... throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 25:26, 30)

Which sentence do you want to hear when you meet the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgment Day? I hope that each one of us cultivate a strong, eternal desire for joy and that we pursue it relentlessly. Only if we joyfully prepare now for that last stage of life can we have eternal joy. Please consider whether you have the high-quality, eternal goal and faith that can sustain your joy now and forever. If you do, nothing can stand between you and joy.