One Balm Can Fix It All: Money

Dollars funnel.Thought that would grab your attention!

Last week I mentioned that I have reflected a great deal about the intersection of passion and gifting as it relates to vocation.  The same is true for happiness and joy, terms I would, in fact, define differently.
I recently picked up an issue of Time magazine, the cover of which contained these words: “The Pursuit of Happiness.” The authors write the aforementioned line that stopped me in my tracks, “One balm can fix it all: money” within a subsection entitled, “Get rich, get happy.” They cite research suggesting that having our basic needs met: food, clothing and shelter does indeed make us happy yet that there is a threshhold of income beyond which our sense of well being is not increased. I’m not sure I can argue vigorously with the research, just its conclusion.
Apparently our level of happiness as Americans, however, is not commensurate with our vast wealth.  Poorer nations are far happier- however this is determined. Do you know we spend $25 billion per year to attend sporting events and $200 billion on electronics?  Mind blowing.  And we are country of “exhibitionistic spending”- never more on display than in social media which, interestingly (according to another study), seems to make people less happy.  The article suggests that we all “suffer” in comparison with others.  And this robs us of joy.
From Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, “It is strange to see with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue their own welfare, and to watch the vague dread that constantly torments them lest they should not have chosen the shortest path which may lead to it.”
I find this a fascinating commentary considering we could share this 10,000′ view on the burgeoning economy of post communist China.  Are its people any happier now?  I don’t think so.
As we take the “shortest path” and buy things to make us happy, we often forgo the most important “things”: relationships and experiences.  On Sunday I had one such experience- the privilege of being alongside a pastor who served communion to a home bound church member.  There was nothing more precious than this sweet soul, now confined to a hospital bed, basking in the message of God’s love and peace.  She appeared intermittently conscious yet perhaps not unlike Maya Angelou in taking comfort in this simple truth: “God loves me.”  She hardly spoke, but we heard her “loud and clear” when she feebly uttered these words after we silenced her TV, “the world is full of too much noise.”
Oh, how true.  Out of the mouths of babes and the bed-ridden I suppose.
Much of the noise clamors in our own heads, telling us how much we need to acquire and how successful and yes, happy we need to be. The latter is our constitutional guarantee, is it not? Not really. Just the pursuit of it. Which begs the question: what are YOU pursuing?  Is it a goal in and of itself or a byproduct? Will it take up your whole life, as per George Saunders, while the larger questions go untended? Will it create a vicious cycle of self renewing need or will it satisfy your soul’s deepest longing?
The cacophonous voices of our parents, co-workers, neighbors, Facebook “friends” and media moguls as well as the barrage of visual “noise” also propel us to climb ladders, break through glass ceilings and keep up with the Joneses.  This noise can keep us perpetually distracted and suppress us into a spiritual coma.  It can drown out the still, small voice within each of us which draws us to a larger purpose and someone or thing larger than ourselves.
On some level, as Westerners, we fear silence and stillness – it can cause acute discomfort, yet only when we quiet ourselves will we hear the divine whispers we need to hear. And only in responding to them will we discover lasting and abiding “happiness” no matter our circumstances, status or position. This lasting, abiding happiness, by the way, is what I call joy.
And if we live as if only God is watching, it will never elude us.
– Caroline Watkins

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