“We rarely get enough of what we don’t need to make us happy”. So wrap your head around that sentence. At first it seems almost like an oxymoron. But you have to read it again. Sometimes you have to read it several times to get the full implications of what that means; “we rarely get enough of what we don’t need to make us happy”. They were all kinds of wonderful statements made about happiness and often “one of my friends who said about a group of people that he knew, that “they didn’t know what they wanted and they won’t be happy until they get it.” At some point it becomes a huge question as to what it is that exactly what makes us happy. I think of all the people that I know who work so hard to buy their first house and almost immediately upon moving in started thinking about another house to get more space, more light, a better location, whatever. We work hard to buy that expensive car that has all the bells and whistle‘s and when we finally get it we’re unhappy because it doesn’t have handwarmers on the steering wheel.
The Bible says that godliness with contentment is great gain. It is a wonderful thing which sadly few people want to know. Those who have Christ as their joy, their hope, and their crown may not have all the things in life that seem to make so many others happy, but they have Joy in the deep places because they know that they have all they need for life in this world and life in the world to come. If we have Christ we have enough.
Reading the “Little Book of Joy” brought me back to the place where I remembered bits and pieces of other peoples lives as I was going about writing songs for a contemplation and meditation on the book. They were folks that didn’t have much, and yet they were joyous. And that is why I wrote this song. Part of being happy is knowing when you have enough.
