The human heart is on a quest for happiness. Every person yearns for happiness like the desert yearns for rain.You have a desire for happiness; I have a desire for happiness. The desire is universal, common to every member of the human family. We simply desire to be happy and we act from that desire.
So why are so many people unhappy? Too often I meet people with faces so long they look like they have been sucking moth balls through a garden hose. Why?
I believe it is because of three prevailing (if you will) “philosophies” that are running rampant in society these days. Actually these philosophies have been around for thousands of years individually – it just seems they have come together at this particular point in history.
The philosophies are:
1. Individualism
2. Hedonism
3. Minimalism
Individualism can be summed up in its over-arching creed: “What’s in it for me?” This question is expressed in an all-consuming concern for one thing – me. It’s a “me versus you” rather than an “us” philosophy. It has no thought for the community in which we are born and have our being.
The fruits of individualism are the very things that fight against the happiness the human heart so desires:
How can the human heart find happiness in the midst of these things? Quite simply: it cannot
We are a community. We were created for community. Together, not alone, we fulfill our search for happiness.
Hedonism asserts that pleasure in the supreme good in life. “If it feels good, do it” is the battle cry of the hedonist lifestyle. This is not a new philosophy. In fact, history shows that every time hedonism has emerged as a personal philosophy it has produced men and women that are lazy, lustful and out of control.
Think of the Roman Empire as an example.
The desires of hedonism work under the guise of “personal freedom”. It is the “you can’t tell me what is right and wrong” attitude.
What’s the problem?
Once again, history shows that, in the end, hedonism produces not pleasure, but despair. It is not an expression of personal freedom, but a passport to enslavement to every possible craving and addiction.
Most importantly – hedonism will never produce the TRUE happiness that you and I seek.
Minimalism says: “What is the least I can do? It’s all about exerting the minimum effort and receiving the maximum reward.
Here are some of the questions of minimalism – see if any look familiar:
Sound familiar?
Do you think that holding this philosophy will help you in your quest for happiness. Is this really what life is all about?
Let me end by asking that last question in relationship to all three philosophies:
Is life really about greed and selfishness
Is happiness about simple pleasure?
Does the human heart truly long to just get by with the least?
Our hearts are on a quest – that quest is who we are and the very thing for which we were created.
We are better than individualism, hedonism and minimalism.
Believe it!
Your Turn:
How have you seen these philosophies affect your happiness?
