Why Unhappy?

I caught the tail end of a radio story about optimism. Apparently someone has done an international survey of people’s expectations for 2011. The survey discovered that European countries are very pessimistic about the coming year, with France leading the morbidity quotient. Americans are not very far behind, with the majority NOT expecting much happiness in the coming year.

By contrast, people in nations like Ghana and Nigeria are feeling pretty optimistic about the future. Interesting isn’t it? That those who live in the richest countries are those who are most down-in-the-mouth, while those who live in Nigeria (a nation with extreme poverty, corruption and little social services) are among the happiest in the world.

Maybe folks in Nigeria figure that things can’t possibly get any worse. Or maybe most of them have learned through long years of doing without that it is not things or wealth that lead to happiness in the first place. We, in the U.S. of A., have not learned that lesson yet. The recession has seemed to make us more eager for days of prosperity than ever before, rather than teaching us the value of doing more with less, or of finding happiness apart from things.

Jesus has already summed up the source of happiness a long time ago:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:25-34)”