- Ed Welch, When People Are Big And God Is Small, p. 149, 150
Consider the times when you have felt controlled by other people - times they "made you" angry or depressed. Now look underneath that bondage. How would you complete the sentence "I need _________" or "I long for ________"? Could it be more accurately phrased, "I want" _________ (love, security, significance, power) and I am not getting it!" "I demand _______!" "I insist on______!" or, "I can't function/live/obey without________!"
This explains why Christ is sometimes not enough for us. If I stand before him as a cup waiting to be filled with psychological satisfaction, I will never feel quite full. Why? First, because my lusts are boundless; by their very nature, they can't be filled. Second, Because Jesus does not intend to satisfy my selfish desire. Instead, he intends to break the cup of psychological need (lusts), not fill it.
A Christian movie portrayed a teenager being wooed to Christ with the promise of better grades upon conversion. Trust Christ, get better grades - sounds great! Just add a few other perks like money, an attractive date, and the family car, and every teenage will convert. But isn't that just appealing to lusts rather than offering deliverance and forgiveness from them? Israelite evangelism never suggested that neighboring idolaters start worshiping the true God because Yahweh would give better crops than their idols. Instead, people were, and are, called to turn from their idols because idolatry is against God.
To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, so we can feel better about ourselves, or so we can have more happiness, not holiness in our lives.
I like this quote. But I would add a couple qualifiers. I think it IS true that God wants us to have more happiness. In fact, he commands it many times in his Word. ("Worship the Lord with gladness", be a "cheerful" giver, etc.). To pit happiness against holiness might be a false dichotomy. The problem is not that we long to be happy, the problem is that we seek our happiness in all the wrong things. God wants us to seek our happiness in Him and his Word. If this happens then our holiness and happiness will be one and the same pursuit. We need a God-centered orientation (learned from his Word) about all of life and then the result will be ultimate happiness and holiness.
If this is a new concept for you, or sounds a bit off, I would encourage you to read this book.
6 comments:
Zach,
Part of the problem here could that Welch does not *seem* (I can't say definitively; I haven't read the whole book) to differentiate between "happiness" and "joy."
The Bible obviously calls us to be joyful in the Lord. However, does it ever *command* constant happiness in the Lord in the way that happiness is *usually* understood today-- as a subjective, primarily emotional state? I'm not sure that God necessarily commands this sort of constant happiness from His people. He might-- I'm just not sure.
Up until fairly recently in Western history, "happiness" was understood to mean "being in a right moral state"-- in a "right way," so to speak, in relation to God and to other people.
Therefore, while North Korean officials might *feel* very "happy" about their persecution of Christians, they are not truly, objectively *happy,* in that they are rebelling against God and His revealed moral will, and they are violating other people who bear His image.
I see the Bible commanding joy as an attitude of the heart that *sometimes has* (not always) an outwardly exultant expression. I see God commanding all people to be in a "happy state" (a morally right state), in relation to Him and other people. Does He *command* constant happiness, in the subjective, emotional sense, from His people though? I don't know. What do you (and anyone else who wants to comment) think?
I meant to type "could *be* that," in the first sentence.
Yeah, certainly we are not called to be happy in the sense of superficial emotion. We should be grieved over the things that grieve God. We don't just slap on a smiley face and say, "God is good!" That is not a Biblical picture.
I just don't think we should present holiness vs. happiness as a stark dichotomy.
z
I agree with you, Zach. It can be hard though-- at least for me-- to talk about "God's commands for Christians to be happy" without falling into a sort of thinking that, if I were growing in our faith, I would be subjectively emotionally "happy" most of the time.
That is definitely *not* the Biblical picture of the Christian life, as I understand it (and I know that's *not* what you are saying). Sadness and happiness (emotionally speaking) are obviously both realities in this fallen world.
The Bible even states that "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth" (Ecclesiastes 7:3-4).
In that light, I wonder-- what does true, Biblical happiness look like? It seems that it might look very different from some of the dominant conceptions of happiness which even Christians have.
There is nothing more oppressive to me than Christian gatherings where the unspoken rule seems to be, "No matter what you do, don't allow yourself to look sad..."
Probably should use a different word than "happy".
z
"Joy," "joyful," and "blessed" might be better words. I know that the Bible uses them, whereas I can't find "happy" or "happiness" in my concordance.
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