Have you got the gift of knowing what makes you happy? I say gift because being happy and knowing what makes you happy is a beautiful thing and not everyone know what makes them happy. Some people seem to just have it, for others it is more hard won. But when won it’s a gift to embrace, sometimes made more delightful by the struggle that got them there. For others still who struggle with trauma, anxiety, addiction or other internal stresses, happiness is an often elusive state. So, knowing what makes you happy is truly a precious gift, and once we know it is easier to make sure we make time and space for those things.
Being a Christian can make seeking happiness more difficult. It would seem that the opposite should be true, because with our belief that we are Children of God, we know that every grace is given to us in Jesus. In his letter to the Romans Chapter 8 v 32, St Paul says that if God has ‘given up Jesus for us all, will He not also give us all things with him too?’ In other words, everything is given to us, salvation and every gift we need. But it doesn’t always seem that easy.
Faith, while a gift that can bring life, can also been used as a mechanism for control or punishment, I know an earlier generation of Catholics has experienced that to varying levels. It can be the case people can feel that God doesn’t want them to be happy or that they will be punished for being who they are. If that is the case it can be very hard to know what makes you happy. The thing that is supposed to bring happiness, faith in God, does not but neither does being ourselves because we may have been told negative messages about who we were.
But however we were raised, our early experiences do not have the last word. God is so wonderful that anything is possible with Him and He wants us to be healed of those hurts and wounds. His love has the power to conquer all things. Happiness comes with healing, in God’s eyes we are perfect, often we just don’t see it ourselves. That is the real journey of faith, allowing ourselves to be loved by God even when it terrifies us!
If you know what makes you happy, you are blessed. But you are blessed too if you don’t, because God has a lot in store for you. Peace with God is possible, it’s a case of desire and belief, if you haven’t yet, I invite you to gently open your heart to Him and allow Him to shower you with every gift he desires for you, he has given us Jesus and he will give us every good gift as well!
Fr Tom
