Grace San Diego

I received a great email the other day about my first message in the "Pursuit of Happiness" series. I had said in the message that many Christians equate having fun with being happy, ("A Healthy View of Pain"). I had mentioned that fun should be a part of every Christian's life. The question I received was about how much fun we should have, because fun seems to lead to temptation. I will deal with this extensively in my message on June 8th, but I will give some governing principles here:

1. Does the fun violate a scriptural principle? If we are prohibited by scripture to do certain things and then transgress that directive, we will not acquire happiness but actually undermine it with a sense of guilt and shame.

2. Does the fun bring shame to the Lord or the cause of Christ? There is a case that can be given that if Christians are too far from society, (i.e. not engaged in the healthy, fun activities of that society) the world will see Christ as a God who lacks understanding of human need. On the other hand, if we indulge in fleshly activities we will give the sense that God is not Holy. People will equate His character with our behavior. Because we need close intimacy with God our happiness will be undermined. We cannot divorce the spiritual and the emotional.

3. Does the fun really produce happiness? It may be fun to have sex outside of marriage but will in almost every case fail to bring happiness. When the fun is over you will be left with a sense of emptiness that steals whatever happiness you might otherwise have. Sex binds us to another person and is meant to be experienced in a committed marital relationship, because without that commitment it fails to fulfill.

4. Does the fun hurt others? You may have fun gossiping with your friends about someone, however this is unlikely to bring happiness. You will have fun at someone else's expense and then lose your own happiness.

Happiness is not passive, it must be pursued.

Wise people know how to find a residual happiness in life.