The Pursuit of Happiness
The quest for happiness and the satisfaction of desires is a primary driver of people's choices and pursuits in life. Some people achieve these goals, but rarely do they achieve it permanently. Before long, the feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment have faded or new desires have replaced the old, and we are off again in search of the answer. Some find this constant pursuit exhilarating and part of the challenge of life. It truly is about the journey for them, and the fact that the journey has no ending destination does not bother them. Others are mired in constant frustration and dissatisfaction because they truly want to reach their destination, the mythical land of permanent happiness.
C.S. Lewis describes the recognition of the origin of our desires and the alternatives for how to handle the pursuit of those desires. He describes our true longings by saying, "Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise."
I know that feeling. How many things in this world send the false message, "If only you had _____, life would finally be all that you want it to be." The most obvious thing is money. Unfortunately, as Matt Chandler says, most of us will never be rich enough to realize it will never be enough to satisfy. If that is true, we will continue to pursue it because the answer, in our minds, is not that money is not the answer, it's simply that we don't have enough of it to find the answer that it holds.
Lewis describes three responses to the fact that the things of this world fail to satisfy our deepest desires. Two of the responses, as he says, are wrong, and one is right.
1. "The Fool's Way"- to put the blame on the things themselves. The reason marriage didn't permanently satisfy that desire for you is because, in your mind, you chose the wrong spouse. The result is a constant chasing for the right _________, because it holds the answer to your desires. This person may feel momentary highs, but more often feels disappointment.
2. "The Way of the Disillusioned Sensible Man"- this is the person who has just given up. They've decided that, after experiencing near-constant disappointment, that satisfaction and happiness simply do not exist. "He settles down and learns not to expect too much" and represses part of himself. He dismisses the pursuit as something only the young and stupid continue. "Common sense" has led him to conclude that an answer doesn't exist.
3. "The Christian Way"- we would not have desires in us unless satisfaction for those desires exists. This thought directly contradicts response #2. Lewis says, "Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." Our desires and the true satisfaction of those desires relate to what world we were really made for. True satisfaction and happiness are elusive to us when we look for those things in this world, rather than the eternal world for which we were created and the One who created it and us. This thought directly contradicts response #1.
The takeaways are these- satisfaction and happiness do exist, but not in the form of earthly things. We won't find our answer in this world because we weren't made for this world.
Why do we remain thirsty when we drink constantly and in mass quantity? Maybe we are drinking from the wrong well.
C.S. Lewis describes the recognition of the origin of our desires and the alternatives for how to handle the pursuit of those desires. He describes our true longings by saying, "Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise."
I know that feeling. How many things in this world send the false message, "If only you had _____, life would finally be all that you want it to be." The most obvious thing is money. Unfortunately, as Matt Chandler says, most of us will never be rich enough to realize it will never be enough to satisfy. If that is true, we will continue to pursue it because the answer, in our minds, is not that money is not the answer, it's simply that we don't have enough of it to find the answer that it holds.
Lewis describes three responses to the fact that the things of this world fail to satisfy our deepest desires. Two of the responses, as he says, are wrong, and one is right.
1. "The Fool's Way"- to put the blame on the things themselves. The reason marriage didn't permanently satisfy that desire for you is because, in your mind, you chose the wrong spouse. The result is a constant chasing for the right _________, because it holds the answer to your desires. This person may feel momentary highs, but more often feels disappointment.
2. "The Way of the Disillusioned Sensible Man"- this is the person who has just given up. They've decided that, after experiencing near-constant disappointment, that satisfaction and happiness simply do not exist. "He settles down and learns not to expect too much" and represses part of himself. He dismisses the pursuit as something only the young and stupid continue. "Common sense" has led him to conclude that an answer doesn't exist.
3. "The Christian Way"- we would not have desires in us unless satisfaction for those desires exists. This thought directly contradicts response #2. Lewis says, "Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." Our desires and the true satisfaction of those desires relate to what world we were really made for. True satisfaction and happiness are elusive to us when we look for those things in this world, rather than the eternal world for which we were created and the One who created it and us. This thought directly contradicts response #1.
The takeaways are these- satisfaction and happiness do exist, but not in the form of earthly things. We won't find our answer in this world because we weren't made for this world.
Why do we remain thirsty when we drink constantly and in mass quantity? Maybe we are drinking from the wrong well.
posted by Robert Jory Allen at
3:32 AM
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