Program My Happiness

Are you a happy person? What makes you happy?

Happiness is not as simple as we’d like to think. Take for example a dog. Why do some families buy a dog to increase their happiness while other families detest getting a dog? Why might one student jump for joy when getting a “B” on their math test and another student cry?

Anthony DeMello says, “What makes you happy or unhappy is not the world and the people around you, but the thinking in your head… Do you realize that you could have the finest looks and the most charming personality and the most pleasant of surroundings, and still be unhappy?”

What he’s getting at is that your happiness is directly related to the programming inside your head.

A student’s parents might program their son to think that getting an “A” on his math test is the only acceptable option. IF he gets an “A”, THEN his parents will accept him and he’ll be happy. A girl who grew up with a dog her whole life might think that IF she gets a dog when she leaves home, THEN she’ll be happy. You see, the fulfillment of these programmatic requirements inside the head determines the happiness, not the “A” or the “dog” itself.

It is true that being accepted by your parents or getting a dog after high school will bring flashes of excitement and pleasure, but we can’t mistake that for happiness.

DeMello continues, “If people want happiness so badly, why don’t they attempt to understand their false beliefs [due to the programming]? First, because it never occurs to them to see them as false or even as beliefs. They see them as facts and reality… Second, because they are scared to lose the only world they know: the world of desires, attachments, fears, social pressures, tensions, ambitions, worries, guilt, with flashes of the pleasure and relief and excitement which these things bring.”

We are being programmed daily by our family, friends, and culture. Adam and Eve, the first to be programmed, did not take the time to reflect on how the Deceiver was programming them with The Lie. So they ate. They thought it would make them happy, but it did not. This deception and programming has gone on even up till today.

So how do we un-program ourselves and then know how to live in God’s Reality? How do we get out of the Matrix and live in God’s Real world?

As you begin to read the bible and interact with others who are following Jesus, the light of Truth and the weight of Reality will begin to press into your darkness and start to expose your false beliefs and deconstruct the programming inside your head. Your thoughts and actions will be reconciled by the Spirit of God. You won’t fall prey to quick bursts of pleasure, but you’ll attach yourself to the rich roots of satisfaction in Him.

A Heaven With No Clouds

Here are some commonly held assumptions about heaven among Christ followers:

*content is from the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn which is outlined bellow by Rick McKinley in This Beautiful Mess

We assume that heaven is a completely nonphysical experience. We'll float around and morph from place to place. We assume that heaven will feel unfamiliar and other-wordly.

Truth: The bible shows that heaven will be a restored physical world. Heaven will be a flourishing realm of city and nature, of people and conversations, of streets to walk down and good food to be enjoyed.

We assume that in heaven people will be spirits (nice ghosts, though, like Casper).

Truth: The bible tells us that we will exist in eternity in a body that has been "raised in glory" - a physical body similar to the resurrected Jesus - that will never again wrestle with sickness, want, pain, or aging.

We think of heaven as static. Harps and clouds and very loud sing-alongs. We tend to imagine a heaven where we will have no desire because everything will be perfect and we will have nothing to do.

Truth: You will have things to do, people to visit, meaningful relationships, fulfilling responsibilities. The bible shows us that we have been created in the image of God to be passionate about many things, to pursue, to enjoy, and to achieve. In heaven, there is a good chance that you'll be doing many of the same things you are doing now that you enjoy!

As we let the truth about heaven push aside our wrong assumptions, we'll find ourselves wanting heaven more and being defeated by earth less.

My note: This makes me excited to be a part of heaven even more. But it doesn't make me want to sit around and wait. It makes me want to pray even more that the Kingdom would come right here, right now, as Jesus prayed. We don't have to wait. We have the opportunity to see heaven crash into earth everyday. Let's get to it.