It’s January and the familiar, sometimes rote and most often times sincere wishes of a  “Happy New Year”  are exchanged.  Yet after our epic 2020, when we are honest many of us are wondering will it be a Happy or A Happy Crappy New Year?  Can I really feel happy?  If I felt “happy” would everything be better?

I am convinced it is not just the “happy” we really want and long for, but the fulfilled life.  

The only thing that can make you happy is to be happy with who really are, and not who people think you are” – Goldie Hawn

We all want to appear happy but deep down inside many are not, and that is ok even if the world tells you it’s not.  The truth is life is designed to have moments of happiness, sadness, good, bad, ups and downs; that is the natural rhythm of life. If we could be ok with not “feeling” happy all the time and instead focus on experiencing fulfillment in the development of our character and abilities, that would ultimately lead to experiencing and choosing feelings of happiness in the process;  the journey through it all!  

Happy is an emotional state of “high” that comes and goes, but a fulfilled life is the measure of it ALL taken into account.  It’s the perspective of the ups and down, rather than the steady linear line that we think we want and need in order to experience the “good life” everyone else portrays to have, if I choose to see the down as an opportunity to move up and in the up I enjoy the moments of celebration and grace God has given,  then that is the fulfilled life I want.

So though we know the new normal; sometimes uncomfortable state of reality does not quite feel like “happy” we move on with the passing smile or grin covering over the brokenness within, a time when the masks leave the unanswered questions ok. 

We have 2 Focus Mindsets to choose:

1) Disappointed it’s not the “happy” life I imagined I would live, so everything, everyone and every day is a repeat of yesterday.

2) Each day is a gift scattered with moments of happiness and disappointment.  I choose to maintain a position of hope that I can put my trust in God, learn more of who I am, whose I am, who He is and my purpose in this world.  This is the journey of the fulfilled life even when…..

I’ve lived the hard, I’ve experienced the happy and I know what fulfillment is! I love the happy moments when everything feels like it’s going good. The times when all 8 people in my home are getting along; the energy is sweet, tender and peaceful- this does make me happy- FACT.  

I also realize in real time that these moments often come after very authentic and challenging times of hard,  where we work through the grind and and depend on the grit to learn how to love each other deeper and more powerfully; especially when feelings of disappointment or failure knock at the door of real living…..  This makes me happy too!    

Bottom line… I am convinced it is not just the “happy” we really want and long for, but the fulfilled life.  Happy is a state of “high” that comes and goes but a fulfilled life is the measure of it ALL taken into account.  It’s the perspective of the ups and down, rather than the steady linear line that we think we want and need in order to experience the “good life” everyone else portrays to have, I choose to see the down as an opportunity to move up and in the up I enjoy the moments of celebration and grace God has given.  

Perhaps what we really hunger for is a fulfilled life where happy moments are just as valuable as hard moments.  Where we find real strength in needing God and depending on Him more than others and things to give a false sense of security and success.  The space where the shallow meets the the deep.  The “happy” life is a lie- It’s the surface illusion of success.  I am happy because I am fulfilled, and I am fulfilled because I am challenged to grow and celebrate seasons of pain with seasons of promise.   For in the deep… (Ps 42:7) “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.”  We come forth refined and purified like a shell on the sea shore deep spaces what we are made of and for in this life we all truly long for not just at the end of the day but at the end of our journey here. It has been in my darkest moments and hours that I’ve learned to really love life and find the meaning for my life on earth and that is what fills me up! 

Why, my soul are you downcast?  Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God. Ps 42:5             

Join us as we dig a little deeper into the the mindsets and messages that keep the fire burning bright and hot!  

Surface happiness

Easy

Who said an easy life makes it a happy one? 

Is anyone among you in trouble, let him pray? Is anyone happy let them sing songs praise. 

Definitions

Discuss- -Difference good bad, happy hard times- Perspective

1. Jobs-
2. Status- titles
3. Home- 

Conclusion: Ecclesiastes

God- Opportunity to seek deeper fulfillment in life. 

Highs and lows to find fulfillment