“Lessons for a Happier Life”

Psalm 1

September 20, 2009 + Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

Our subject today is happiness. What does that word mean to you? If someone asked you how to be happy, what would you say? Are you happy now? And if you are happy would you like to be more happy? How do we find happiness?

Happiness is so difficult to define. I was amazed when I discovered that there are hundreds, even thousands, of quotations about happiness from those who have lived in all periods of history. Some of them are simple, some are profound, some are serious, some are funny, but all of them help us to understand more of this illusive quest for all of us. Let me share some of them with you.

Unknown

Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.

Lord Byron

All who would win joy, must share it. Happiness was born a twin.

Unknown

The really happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery when on a detour.

Victor Hugo

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

Margaret Lee Runbeck

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

John B. Sheerin

Happiness is not in our circumstance but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of fire. Happiness is something we are.

Anne Frank

Think of all the beauty that’s still left in and around you and be happy!

Unknown

Happiness is enhanced by others but does not depend upon others.

Unknown

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

Jim Thomson

I can only think of one thing greater than being happy and that is to help another to be happy, too.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.

Aristotle

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Charles Schulz

Happiness is a warm puppy.

Ben Franklin

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

Roy M. Goodman

Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.

Mark Twain

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

The Dalai Lama

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Helen Keller

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Friedrich Nietzsche

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

Jacques Prevert

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.

Henry Miller

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

William Blake

The essentials to happiness are something to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

Albert Schweitzer

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

Brother David Steindl-Rast

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy – because we will always want to have something else or something more.

Buddha

Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.

C. P. Snow

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase, if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.

Carl Jung

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Charles Schulz

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?

Denis Waitley

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

Edith Wharton

If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.

Eric Hoffer

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.

Felix Adler

The truth which has made us free will in the end make us glad also.

Fran Leibowitz

Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear the phone is for you

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

George Burns

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

George Sand

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.

James M. Barrie

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.

John Barrymore

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.

Leo Buscaglia

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

Marcel Proust

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Margaret Bonnano

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Norman Macewan

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Peyton Conway March

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life – happiness, freedom, and peace of mind – are always attained by giving them to someone else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

Theodor Fontane

Happiness, it seems to me, consists of two things: first, in being where you belong, and second – and best – in comfortably going through everyday life, that is, having had a good night’s sleep and not being hurt by new shoes.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Willa Cather

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something completely great.

Steve Jobs

I’m very happy to be here today with you all. As some of you know about 5 months ago I had a liver transplant, so I now have the liver of a mid-20’s person who died in a car crash. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity. I hope all of us can be as generous and become organ donors.

These are fascinating thoughts, aren’t they? But one thing puzzled me. None of them mentioned God. Personally, I believe that true happiness comes from fulfilling the life that God wants us to lead and I can think of no better example of that than Psalm 1. I know we heard the traditional version read to us a few moments ago but I want to share with you a modern version that I hope will inspire you as much as it did me.

“Blessed are the man and the woman

                        who have grown beyond their greed

                        and have put an end to their hatred

                        and no longer nourish illusions.

But they delight in the way things are

                        and keep their hearts open day and night.

            They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,

                        which bear fruit when they are ready.

Their leaves will not fall or whither.

                        everything they do will succeed.”                                   - Stephen Mitchell

Isn’t that beautiful? And just one more note: as far as the Bible is concerned to be blessed (by God) is what true happiness is all about. And here is the best news of all: each one of us can find that blessed happiness here and now because God wants us to have it.