WHAT IS HAPPY?

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One sunny Sunday morning, Henry Jones was rudely awakened by his wife shaking him by the shoulder.  “You have to get up,” she urged. “We have to get ready for church.”

“I don’t want to go to church.  I want to stay in bed.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, she demanded, “Give me three good reasons why you should stay in bed and not go to church.”

"OK, First, I don’t get anything out of the service.  Second, I don’t like the people there. And third, no one there likes me.  Now can you give me three good reasons why I should go?

 

“Well, first, it will do you some good.  Second, there are people there who really do like you, and they’ll miss you if you aren’t there.  And third, you’re the minister!”

King Solomon comes with a reputation for being very wise, so read to his following words found in the book of Ecclesiasts …

Words of how he sought to find happiness and didn’t succeed.

And which are actually our scripture for the morning.

 ¹ I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

² “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?”

³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives

 ⁴ I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.

⁵ I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

⁶ I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.

⁷ I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

⁸ I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem^[as well—the delights of a man’s heart.

⁹ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.  
¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;  I refused my heart no pleasure.  My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.

¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
 and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.                       

 (Eccl. 2:1-11).

And there it is, wisdom from experience. Looking back over the years and the acquisition of power and wealth he says,

“…when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

“chasing after the wind…” now there’s a phrase that enhances the word “futility.”

Like Solomon I have built my house and I own it.

My backyard has enough trees to be able to call it a mini park.

And like Solomon I have a pool to swim in or simply enjoy looking at.

I don’t have men singers and maid singers but I do have a stereo.

My eyes have gotten what my heart desired in the form of a wide screen TV.

I’m certainly not a rich man, but neither am I poor.

My financial condition has moved from not so hot when I came out of Seminary to good to better.  And I’ll take better every time, thank you.

But none of that is the point. 

 For if I don’t keep get my priorities straight, I am in trouble…

If I spend my days only “chasing after the wind…”

I am indeed, in trouble.

We all seek happiness without consciously realizing it often is to be found in simple things.

A boy and his dog; the transforming love of a young man and woman; a glass of cool, clear water; a bird’s song; a baby’s smile.

In 1964-65 they had a World’s Fair in New York City.  Millions attended and some even clapped at the magic of some of the exhibits…but do you know what was the most popular experience of all?  A film simply entitled           “To Be Alive.”

Of all the hundreds of films that were prepared and shown in all of the building, it was the one that created long lines stretching around a corner.

What did it show?

A series of unrelated scenes in the lives of average people.

A little Japanese boy rushing breathless through a field of golden wheat.

A young African boy rolling a hoop down a jungle trail, looking with wide-eyed wonder at the birds and animals and flora and fauna all around.

A grandfather made infinitely younger by a larger-than-life smile that creased his face - the reason?  His grandson who sat by his side as they fished in a wide, deep blue lake.

A long time ago I read a poem that perhaps puts

things in a better perspective.

 I’ve repeated it from pulpits and sometimes just to myself to do the inside of my head and heart good.

Suppose that people had to pay

To see the crimson sunset play

Or the magic stars of the Milky Way.

Suppose it was fifty cents a night

to see the great moon’s saffron light

Or watch a gull in its graceful flight.

How much, I wonder would it be worth,

To smell the good, brown, fragrant earth

In spring?  The miracle of birth.

For a baby’s laugh at the close of day?
Suppose God charges us for them, I say!

Suppose God charged us for the rain

Or put a purchase price on a song-bird’s strain

Of music, the dawn, the mist on the plain.

How much would an autumn landscape cost,

Or a window etched with winter’s frost,

And the rainbow’s glory so quickly lost?

How much do you think people would pay
For the cry of a child at the close of a day.

Suppose God charged us for them, I say!

Suppose we paid to look at the hills,

For the rippling sound of the mountain rills.

Or the mating song of the whippoorwills.

Or curving breakers of the sea,
For grace, and beauty, and majesty?

And for all these things he gives us free

may we give thanks on bended knee.

Though we can never agree on everything, because we are human beings, I believe there is one thing we all have in common, we would like to be able daily to go down on bended knee and pray, “Thank you, Lord…I am a happy man or…I am a happy woman…or…I am a happy child.

You want to know why so many people are not able to say that prayer?  Because they keep looking to the east for a sunset.

That’s right… just in case you missed it… They keep looking to the east for a sunset.  Not realizing that reverence and obedience to God, in all things, is the way to find true happiness.

Proverbs 28:14 tells us:  “Happy is the man who is always reverent, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”

In John 15:10-11 we are promised, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL.”

When someone asked Madonna, the singer with the extravagant life style, if she was happy she replied, “No, and I don’t know anyone who is.”

George Gallup, of the famous Gallup poll, conducted a survey that concluded fewer than 10 percent of Americans are deeply-committed Christians.

But they are the people, his poll found out, who were particularly happy.

They were a breed apart.

More of them were not saddled with prejudice and their tolerance gave them a special kind of contentment.

They were involved in a number of charitable activities …giving both time and money they were involved in practical, practiced Christianity.

They were absolutely, totally committed to prayer…for them it was not an occasional… or just when they were in trouble or in need.

And Gallup said, “They are by far, happier than the rest of the population.”

Would you be happy?  Then put your greatest labors not toward what you can acquire but toward our God who can acquire you.

Be bought with a price…

"Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

To access his other book’s; BOUNDARIES UNLIMITED, RUST ON MY SOUL, POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC, I AM SIXTY PLUS AND NOT HOLDING, THE ABC’S OF PARENTING AND GRANDPARENTING, LETTERS TO AMERICA…go to Amazon.com (books) and type in Neil Wyrick.

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To view an abundance of unusual stories and comments by Neil Wyrick go to Neil’s other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

 

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Below is a quote from Wyrick’s Writings blog entitled ANGER VS. PATIENCE
“After the old man had departed, God called out to Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, “I sent him on his way because he did not worship you.”

God answered “I have suffered him all his eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure for just one night?”

God suffers us, endures us! And forgives us and loves us and sets such a perfect example for us.”

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BELOW IS A QUOTE FROM THE SERIES  “A HEAVENLY CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM” …(1st in series) (on this Wyrick’s Writing blog)

 “I have always been intrigued by a question God put to Adam, “Where are you?” Why did He ask that? What is the meaning behind this? It wasn’t a geographical question, for certainly God knew the answer to that one.

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BELOW IS A QUOTE FROM A NEW SERIES “Depression…the Alien Within”  on this Wyrick’s Writings …each week

”Sometimes the best thing do, if depression descends on you, is for a little while to try to wipe clean the slate of your worried mind.  To give such thoughts some muted silence.  Seek an emotional whiteout.  Just let the soft breeze of nothingness blow for a while.  And then, read John 14:27 and hear Jesus saying, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” 

 

“Do you enjoy visiting friends? More than likely you’re thinking, Preacher, of course, I do.
Now let me ask the other side of the coin - Do you enjoy visiting enemies? No?

 

Well, I know you must enjoy visiting at least one enemy because, like myself, you probably visit this one quite often. Unfortunately, we all …visit this enemy…whose name is anger.

Some visit anger seldom . Some on a regular basis. And during those visits, some spew and others stew.”

Copy and paste THE URL BELOW

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

IT WILL TAKE YOU TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG.

There are over 600 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

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TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 

Copy and paste the following URL

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

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RUST ON MY SOUL (63nd in series)

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The Serialization of RUST ON MY SOUL is added to each WEEK. ************************************


RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally)

INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

 

Evening

I had a twinge in my chest this morning.  N\ SEARING PAIN.  No overwhelming pressure.  Just a twinge.  And yes, it makes me anxious.  It dilutes my courage.

Just because I’m soul-deep in faith these days does not mean I am not afraid of dying.  Not death, but dying still offers anxiety.  It might hurt.

I will not die any sooner if I prepare for its eventuality, so it’s time I took care of my earthly affairs.  Though I truly believe God will provide, it does not mean I am no longer allowed some anxiety about the mortgage. Therefore, tomorrow morning I am going to set my options in order.

I have been busy talking about treating my fellow man with Christian love.  I should certainly practice the same practical love toward my wife and kids.  I am going to write a will, review my insurance policies and put several items not so listed into joint accounts. Rather than leave just improved memories because I have become a better me, I need also to leave them worldly goods for functional survival.  I don’t believe it’s possible to shout down all my humanity with spiritual buckshot.  My life’s highway will still have bumps but now I have God as a superior Shock Absorber.

Morning

My faults are not secret.  My whole world knows them.  And, God, you know them.  Now all I have to do is admit them.  It will be as difficult as trying to back up a hill with my emergency brake on.

But, if I can outrace Satan at least sometimes and leave him wheezing, if I can ignore his purring call if, by the Grace of God, I can slowly change, then I will not expect the Host of Heaven to break into a song.  A simple smile of approval will do just fine.  Considering the source just the thought fills me with joy.

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GO TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS and read the following brain teasers. 

CLICK ON URL BELOW

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

“WHICH IS BETTER TO BE?  A WINDOW OR A DOOR” ” “BE A RAINBOW SEARCHER AND FINDER” “IS YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION?

Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS

ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER

 

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

 

ALREADY STARTED Serialization of another book SIXTY PLUS AND NOT HOLDING 

This book, SIXTY PLUS AND NOT HOLDING, is about dealing positively with the challenges of getting older and fosters the belief  that “If we would have new knowledge, we must get a world of new questions.”  (Susanne K. Langer)

MANY OF THE SUGGESTIONS IN THIS BOOK ARE GOOD FOR IMPROVING ONE’S LIFE AT ANY AGE

“I am come that they (you) may have life and have it to the full.  (John 10:10)

Anyone who lives long enough gets older.  There are no other options.  How we handle the adventure is filled with options.

Keep both eyes on life, and not on the calendar.  Admit your age, but don’t admit to the fallacy that you have to act like it.  Saying, “I’m 39 and holding,” is more tragic than humorous because it argues that age has no attributes.

V. Neil Wyrick

Below a quote from it…

“Be like the farmer who, when asked what he was building, replied, “if I can rent it, it’s a rustic cottage.  If I can’t, it’s a cow shed.”

It’s called attitude and it can make us prematurely old or longer young.  For truly, things aren’t just what they are, but rather how we choose to see them.”

To access his other book’s; BOUNDARIES UNLIMITED, RUST ON MY SOUL, POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC, I AM SIXTY PLUS AND NOT HOLDING, THE ABC’S OF PARENTING AND GRANDPARENTING, LETTERS TO AMERICA…go to Amazon.com (books) and type in Neil Wyrick.

 

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Below is a quote from Thursday Jan 20th Wyrick’s writings blog entitled ANGER VS. PATIENCE

“After the old man had departed, God called out to Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, “I sent him on his way because he did not worship you.”

God answered “I have suffered him all his eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure for just one night?”

God suffers us, endures us! And forgives us and loves us and sets such a perfect example for us.”

*************************************

BELOW IS A QUOTE FROM THE SERIES  “A HEAVENLY CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM” … (1st in series) (on this Wyrick’s Writing blog)
 

"I have always been intrigued by a question God put to Adam, “Where are you?” Why did He ask that? What is the meaning behind this? It wasn’t a geographical question, for certainly God knew the answer to that one.

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To view an abundance of unusual stories and comments by Neil Wyrick go to Neil’s other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

BELOW IS A QUOTE FROM A SERIES “Depression…the Alien Within”  on this Wyrick’s Writings …each week

”Sometimes the best thing do, if depression descends on you, is for a little while to try to wipe clean the slate of your worried mind.  To give such thoughts some muted silence.  Seek an emotional whiteout.  Just let the soft breeze of nothingness blow for a while.  And then, read John 14:27 and hear Jesus saying, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” 

 

“Do you enjoy visiting friends? More than likely you’re thinking, Preacher, of course, I do.
Now let me ask the other side of the coin - Do you enjoy visiting enemies? No?

 

Well, I know you must enjoy visiting at least one enemy because, like myself, you probably visit this one quite often. Unfortunately, we all …visit this enemy…whose name is anger.

Some visit anger seldom . Some on a regular basis. And during those visits, some spew and others stew.”

CLICK ON THE URL BELOW

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

IT WILL TAKE YOU TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG.

There are over 600 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

***********************

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

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60 PLUS AND NOT HOLDING

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DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK?  IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG?  IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Someone once said that a pessimist is someone who can look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol.  Who, when he sees the light at the end of the tunnel rushes ahead to blow it out?

Isn’t it better to be like the candidate who when not elected said “I came in second and my opponent came in next to last.”

Pessimism is surely the key to misery.  And some people do worry more easily than others.  Pessimistically fill themselves up with anxiety faster than a dog’s fleas can multiply.  Earn their PhD, in worry.  Are prone to advertise in the classified sections of their local newspaper, “Motivational tapes for sale. Some never used.”

And then there are the incurable optimists.  William Pitt who used to emphasize his remarks in Parliament by shaking his crutches in the air.  Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote some of the world’s finest prose while dying of tuberculosis.  Or Charles Darwin who devised his theory of evolution in the few minutes each day he could see well enough to write.  Or Beethoven composing his Ninth Symphony even though he was stone deaf.  Alexander Pope was a hunchback but this physical affliction from writing brilliant satires.  What lessons these asters of survival have to teach!

They obviously believed that, “It’s the rocks in the river that make it sing.”  And I would add, we can make it sing even more by how we place the rocks.”

Copy and paste THE URL BELOW

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

IT WILL TAKE YOU TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG.

There are over 600 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

***********************

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 

Copy and paste the following URL

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

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GOD IS LOVE (2nd in series)

        Paul put it this way, “Trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (Moffat Translation) and remember Paul wrote these words not from some ivory tower…but rather he had been beaten in a dirty windowless jail cell.  Remember his words in 2 Corinthians 11:24“Five times I received forty stripes save one, thirty was I beaten with rods.”

My children are all grown now.  Indeed, as a great grand father I can really look back a long way to remember when I was a young father and had to sometimes say “No” to a tear stained face. 

“Daddy knows best” was the message I tried to communicate and I did certainly know better than my little ones who were still trying to adapt to this adventure called life.

Not that they always believed it.  Actually, they seldom believed it…but that made it no less true.

So it is with my heavenly Father.  He knows what is best and better than a billion times over.  He sees a total picture.  I see no more than a pixel or two. 

It is why I pray “Thy will be done.”  It is why sometimes when I have sought to succeed where I was not sure I was right in the pursuit of a particular success I have prayed, “Lord, if I have made a bad choice…please let me fail.”  And thank God, and that is a prayer, He has answered what I call “another one of my failure prayers.”   And saved me from myself.

And then there are times when failure has come looking for me…the same that has happened to others…and a stumble became a fall that became a disaster that became a roaring success story.

Take out tragedy and triumph walked hand in hand to meet and greet Ludwig Van Beethoven. 

As he conducted his famous Ninth Symphony, the audience stood and rocked the theater with their applause.  This great musician, however, heard neither the musicnor the applause, because by this time in his life…he was completely stone deaf.

His deafness first made him bitter but then heroic and it came through in his music.  Many of his musician friends found a new depth and intensity “there is triumph in his music that never was there before” said one musical critic.

When three year old Louie Braille blinded himself while boring holes with an awl in his father’s harness shop, it seemed a senseless tragedy.

However, because Braille was blind; for over one hundred years the blind have been able to read.  

 

Helen Keller was born deaf, dumb and blind and yet was able to say when finally she overcame the impossible “I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God.”

Once, two men in Charles Reade’s book “The Cloister and the Hearth” were shown walking through a troubled Europe.

One man continually turns to the other and says, “Courage my friend, the devil is dead.”

A better verbal tonic might have been, “Courage my friend, God is alive.”

That’s the gospel, my friends.  It does not deny problems.  It asserts faith.

It shouts “God is love.”  It comes to you in your darkest moment of doubt and says, “Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heaven laden and I will give you peace.”

Yes, I know men kill but I know they also heal.

I know there is pain but there is also the pleasure of being comforted.

I know he put within us greed and graciousness…sin and sainthood…all kind of evil and all manner of good…and then He made man free. 

And with that freedom I flew airplanes and then did aerobatic and flew hang gliders and that final act of courage and foolishness almost got me killed.  It did paralyze my left arm and even after the paralysis left make it so it would never work quite the same way again.  And yes fill me with an overwhelming gratitude that once paralyzed it worked again.

Pain, problem, fear and the recovery.  What a trip and what I learned from that trip.  Gratitude of the sort I could never have had any other way.

Copy and paste THE URL BELOW

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

IT WILL TAKE YOU TO NEIL’S OTHER BLOG.

There are over 600 stories and commentaries on this blog. It is added to daily.

***********************

TO WATCH NEIL WYRICK IN HIS ONE MAN DRAMAS (Presented to millions all around the world) (Ben Franklin, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Abraham Lincoln (this Lincoln film takes 11 seconds to download but is worth the wait)

 

Copy and paste the following URL

 

http://www.speakerneil.com/

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