Skip to main content

Because I'm Happy

As a child, I loved our family dinners. The eight of us sat around the kitchen table. So much laughter! So many arguments! My dad used to yell above the din, "Only three talking at a time!" As my older siblings became teenagers, they got involved with extracurricular activities, and they got jobs that took them from our family dinners, but there were still evenings, though not many of them, when no one had to rush off. Periodically, on those rare evenings, someone would pull out a deck of cards. Our game of choice was "Murder," but every now and again we'd play "Are You Happy?"

Each player drew a card from the deck. The card you drew dictated whether or not you were happy - the higher the card, the happier you were. Play went around the table, and each player made their declaration. There is, of course, more to the game than that, but since this isn't a game blog, I'll leave the details to someone else.

Sometimes...okay, most of the time...I live my life like a game of "Are You Happy?" When I came down with bronchitis and a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't happy. That was definitely not the card I wanted to draw from the deck. I'm not a very good sick person. I sit around and wait for health to take over. I don't relish my time off work. I don't watch movies all day long or immerse myself in a blessedly well-written novel. I brood. I watch. I wait. I don't want to miss a moment that might signal my health is back. I pounce the second I feel an ounce of energy. I make dinner. I unload the dishwasher. Something. Anything that is normal. I hate being sick.

On a recent episode of Downton Abby, the unmarried Edith lamented to her grandmother, Sometimes I think that God doesn't want me to be happy." The dowager Lady Grantham responded in the wisdom of age, "Oh my dear, that's just the way life is. You get through one trial and then another pops up. You get through that one and another comes along, and then another one, and then another, and then...(heavy pause as if she belatedly realizes what she's saying)...you die."

She's actually spot on about life handing us one trial after another, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't want us to be happy. I'm pretty sure He does wants us to be happy - even when we're dealt a card from the bottom of the suit. I'm learning (oh so slowly) that in order for me to do that, I have to live in the moment. Each moment. I have to recognize God with me in THIS moment. Right here. Right now. I don't have to sit around, waiting for a better card and then pounce on it. I can be happy right now. In the middle of whatever deuce I'm dealing with

If you watched the Academy Awards a few weeks ago, you may have caught Pharrell Williams' performance of his song from Despicable Me, Happy (you can watch the music video here). It's a fun song, and I'm particularly fond of the second verse:

Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,
Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold back, yeah,
Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine, yeah,
No offense to you, don’t waste your time
Here's why
Because I’m happy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How Do You Wait?

The barren one is now in her sixth month.  Not one promise from God is empty of power  for nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1: 37 The Passion Translation I've never thought that much about Elizabeth. Gabriel speaks here to Mary - the mother-to-be of none other than GOD Himself! Who has a thought to spare for this side character in THE story of divine visitation? God come to earth. Wow. Talk about a headline for the New York Times! Why does Gabriel even mention Elizabeth? I don't know, but I'm glad he did.  I read these verses with a different perspective this morning.  "The barren one." Elizabeth is now past childbearing years. It's not a secret. Everyone in her community knows she's barren (it's obvious). The life part of her life is over. There is no hope for her to have her dream - a life like her friends have. She's different from her family, her neighbors. In a time when children are everything, she has nothing.  And now it's too late...

Rethinking My Rightness

I used to label myself as a conservative Christian. Used to. Lately, I'm almost ashamed to even be called a "christian" (that lowercase "c" is on purpose). It seems that over the last eight to ten years, being "christian" has become more about being right than about being Christ-like. It's more about enforcing a perceived level of moral behavior that has nothing to do with a person's heart (what was that Jesus said about a "whitewashed tomb" in Matthew 23:27?). Being "christian" has become more about power, control, and supremacy than it is about loving your neighbor or your God. I'm deeply saddened by the current "christian" focus on the sins of others (LGBTQ anyone?), by the lack of humility, by the pain inflicted (knowingly and unknowingly) on those who are unlike us. I've recently seen the ugliness of my own whitewashed tomb. I don't like it. I cried to see that my heart contains such haughtiness an...

Kippy Is Born

I awoke in the middle of the night or so it seemed for it was still dark outside my window. I was groggy, but I knew I'd heard something. What was it? The puppies! I was awake in an instant. Glady was having her puppies! I scrambled out of bed as fast as I could and ran down the two flights of stairs that took me to where my mom and one of my three sisters sat and watched Glady, lying in an open box filled with old blankets. She was licking one of three tiny black puppies. I'd never seen anything so small that was actually a real live puppy! They were so small even I could have fit one in the palm of my hand - and I was only 7 years old. They were cuter than any stuffed animal I'd ever seen. I wanted so much to hold one, but my mom said that Glady wouldn't like that very much, so I just watched as she licked them (Mom said that was her way of giving them a bath) and as they snuggled with her. They couldn't even open their eyes yet. It wasn't too long before the ...