Well, as long as you’re happy…
…is a true-ish statement. Looks true. Feels true. It’s accepted as true. But in reality, it’s not true. This is one of the most infectious lies we can believe that carry us farther and farther away from God.
This is so easy for us to adopt because it’s the social norm. But when we’re so consumed with chasing our personal, brittle version of happiness and we let that guide our lives, it only leads to disappointment, hurt, jealousy and anger.
If your spouse isn’t currently making you happy but some other person is, whatever you choose to do after that is justified since your personal truth is defined by “happiness.”
If you want to acquire more money and more things, then however you choose to get that stuff, whether legal or illegal, right or wrong, well, it’s not wrong for you, since your subjective truth is merely based on your feelings or emotional highs.
The Bible shows us in James 3:16 that this mindset only leads to disorder and messes and evils of all kinds. And honestly, we don’t need the Bible to prove this to us. Just look at the results of our past decisions based on our “feelings.”
God never promises to eliminate all of the messes or unhappy times, but when we decide to make Jesus the leader in our lives, it leads to a satisfaction and contentment that outlasts and outshines whatever “happiness” we’re chasing; which in reality what we usually chase is some emotional high, not a sustainable satisfaction. God is more interested in making us more like Jesus, not being some anti-unhappy vending machine.
When we make Jesus the leader in our lives it allows us to navigate the highs with humility and the lows with the strength only found in God.