For the next 10 weekdays, we'll be studying Jesus' teaching on what it means to be blessed. Follow along here on the blog, download the whole booklet here, or pick up a copy on Sunday. As part of our Festival, we'll be talking about "The Pursuit of Happiness" at church for the next three Sundays as well.

Introduction

What does it take to really be happy?
 
In her book The Illumined Heart, writer Frederica Mathewes-Green says that the central question of life is “why none of us feels really at home in this world.”
 
“For some,” she explains, “there’s a vague, haunting feeling that we’re always disappointing others; for others, it’s that everyone else is always disappointing us. A lot of us feel like the whole rest of the world is in on a joke we’re not getting, and we just smile awkwardly and pretend to go along. Some of us are burdened throughout our lives with guilt for a severe and genuine evil we committed.  Others feel peppered daily by twinges over a host of minor offenses, pursued as by a cloud of mosquitoes. For all of us, I think there is a recurrent sense of loneliness.”
 
What do we do with that?
 
We pursue happiness. We try to find that right someone, a great achievement, a higher salary, a worthy cause, a home or child or career that will finally soothe the loneliness and make us happy. We look to people who seem to have it all together. We hope they will answer our questions, “Is happiness possible?  What does it look like? And how do we achieve it?”
 
We invite you on a 10-day journey to discover more about happiness. Each day you’ll have the chance to consider a famous saying of Jesus, whose teachings on happiness have inspired billions of people around the world.

What do you think? Post a comment below.

Kevin Miller  

Church of the Resurrection
www.churchrez.org
630-653-3888