Being Happy

I recall somebody's thoughts about happiness. I do not remember much of it, but I guess the main idea was finding pleasure in the way to happiness, and not in the thing itself.

Example: a child desires a new toy. He talks about it, draws it on paper, fantasizes about all the various ways he is going to play with it, one could easily believe that this particular object is his whole life, during the short period between the first thought of it and getting it for real. This state of joyful expectation is equaled with happiness.
Or, a person may be working towards a goal in life, like building a house, acquiring education, getting better after an accident.

I remember embracing this view. It was reasonable, it was simple, it was possible to be verified in my life.
But, when one thinks about it, this is not what one truly may call happiness. Rather, bits and pieces of wishful thinking, making a person strive towards new goals in order to satisfy this neverending hunger for joy. Where does it end? Does it have to go on, endlessly, hopelessly, on and on?
It was a materialistic ideology of life - so much I do recall.

How often are we happy, really? Probably as often as we see rainbows :) Which is not every day.
This past summer I saw rainbows every day, almost, due to the rainy/sunny weather in our region. I wonder what that does to my theory ;) ?

Anyway, just yesterday I was engaging my husband in a conversation about goals and means, in respect to me having become Christian. I concluded with telling him that I do not really longer care whether my boss gives me a fat raise, or whether somebody drives faster than me (I loved to drive fast), or whether my colleagues like me or not because of the things I might do or say to them.
Everything has become secondary to Jesus, and I can truly see how meaningless my existence was before. No, it was not empty - it was filled, but nothing made me truly and permanently happy. Rather, I was 'reincarnating' from one happiness to the next.

And then, this morning, on my way to work, I was listening to Steve Camp's song, "Nothing To Prove". For the first time I got its meaning completely. This was about me, and about every newborn Christian.
There is True Happiness in The Lord. And nowhere else. Now I know it.

Thank You, Mr Camp, for this song - and for all the others.

"You caught me smiling at myself again
It's that realization of the state I'm in
All those great expectations are piling up on me
Oh but my sweet sweet salvation is getting the best of me

So

I don't mind you looking over my shoulder
Maybe I find that I'm just a little bit bolder
Maybe it's just that I've been getting older
But I've got nothing to prove to you"

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1Pe 1:8-9)