“I simply want to live my life slowly and lay down in a bed of moss with my lover and enjoy the rest of my existence reading books, creating art, and loving myself and the people in my life.” “I don’t have goals. I don’t have ambition. I only want to be attractive.” “I don’t have a dream job because I don’t dream of labor.” These are quotations from various social media outlets that highlight a growing trend of discontentment with the workplace. There are many factors that have made the current work environment challenging. The obvious being the pandemic, recessions, and rising inflation rates. The desire of those coming into the work force is to find a job that doesn’t just pay the bills but fulfills them emotionally. While this article is not about work habits, what we are seeing brings to light a dangerous element in the search for happiness—happiness at all costs.
This quest for personal happiness isn’t new. We see it throughout human history. Even our own nation’s Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” While such pursuits are not intrinsically wrong when kept within moral boundaries, that has shifted for our country. Even in our lifetimes we have seen the ancient landmarks of righteousness that had been tattered with time are now ruble and forgotten. What do we do when a nation has destroyed herself for a lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6)?
First, take a deep breath. While this is all new for us, it is not new for the righteous people of God that have lived throughout the centuries. We have many brothers and sisters around the globe that have been living in the same conditions or worse for much longer.
Second, we don’t change, and we don’t pander. We need to continue to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). We must “hold fast the form of sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13). If we falter or fail in this, we too have become those that would move the boundaries that God has set.
Third, we must stand. Your family needs defending! Look at the church today. She is not immune to the false ideologies and new standards of right and wrong that infiltrated into our congregations. From the individual family units to the household of God, we must stand up and stand in the gap (Ezek. 22:30; 1 Cor. 15:58; 16:13; Eph. 6:10-11).
The pursuit of happiness cannot be to the peril of our own salvation and those of whom we have charge. Vanity of vanities. True happiness lies in service and contentment with God (Ecc. 12:13; Phil. 4:11). Stop looking for heaven on Earth.