The Happiness Commandments
The world is filled with enticements that promise us happiness, but leave us empty and forlorn. Some of them are: wealth, education, cultural refinement, fame, power and influence in the world of politics, dashing good looks, a perfect figure for that “little black dress” or that “skinny cut” man’s suit . . . winning the lottery! But anything manmade can never satisfy the deep longings of the human heart. Skin-deep happiness is everywhere.
Intoxicated as we become by January giddiness, let us allow ourselves a moment of eggnog-less sobriety, long enough to ask the man that had more of the aforesaid felicities than any other had had before or has had since. King Solomon, your Royal Highness, Sir, please tell us, did these things bring you happiness? Because you were richer than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and Bill Gates put together, wiser than Henry Kissinger, a better politician than Bill Clinton, a greater poet than Poe and Neruda, more famous than Charlie Chaplin and the Beatles in their respective heyday, better looking than Elvis, more dashing and debonair than Cary Grant, with a “cool” and a “swag” for Sinatra to envy. King Solomon, please tells us, did these earthly things make you happy? The answer that comes back to us is as straight and pensive, as it is short in words and long in remorse: “All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12: 8).
But let us press the elderly Solomon for a fuller, more flesh-in-the-bone response: What did you learn about happiness, your Highness? How can a person find true happiness? The answer now goes from descriptive to prescriptive: “Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12: 13). Solomon is saying, “Find happiness there, you won’t find it anywhere else!”
The same Good News comes through again on that last page of the Bible: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city . . . And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22: 14, 17).
Jesus had already provided the key to happy commandment-keeping when He said: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John. 14: 15) And He added: “He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (verse 21).
Have you noticed that doing what is right out of love for God and man brings with it a quiet, deep satisfaction –dare I say, happiness— like nothing else can do?
