I was in a meeting with a journalist who corresponds with people in regions where journalists cannot enter because of the intensity of the troubles there. She was joyful and animated as she explained how she helps the locals get their stories out. Asked how she stays happy dealing with such serious situations, she responded, “I think people have generally found fulfillment doing what needs to be done.”
In a similar way, I find that happiness keeps bubbling up as we understand our place as the needed expressions of God’s good nature and qualities and live according to that understanding.
I’ve known empty-feeling times when human pleasures ultimately proved unfulfilling. But through my study and practice of Christian Science, steady joy has come in understanding that our fulfillment comes from divine Spirit, God. And joy keeps coming as a result of finding purpose and identity by expressing spiritual qualities, including intelligence, joy, love, and so on. The more we pray to bring out these God-reflecting qualities in our thinking, the more good things happen. This has been the story of my progress.
Christian Science presents the nature of God to us through Bible-based words like divine, infinite, Spirit, Love, Mind, and Soul. There’s great fulfillment in discerning and living the good that expresses these different aspects of God. For instance, qualities like grace, creativity, patience, and caring come from Soul. Finding happiness by expressing such qualities may be similar to what the journalist found. Her happiness came from giving a voice to those who felt they couldn’t be heard and so helping them move forward more empowered.
Ultimately, we find steady joy is in bearing witness to the constant love and goodness of the divine Spirit, and finding within ourselves our all-good, spiritual nature, which is innately ours from God. This not only feels good to us, but blesses others too. God loves us constantly just as the sun keeps shining, whether it’s a cloudy day on Earth or not. And just as the sun can evaporate the clouds, as we recognize and express His love it brightens up the room for others wherever we are.
Society might suggest happiness depends upon what we’re able to own or consume. Maybe happiness feels defined by who we get to spend time with. Maybe the thought is that it comes by immersing ourselves in exciting-looking experiences or posting social media images and videos that make us appear special. I’ve found that such efforts toward joy prove, at their best, to be too little, and true joy is not dependent upon these efforts.
Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can” (“Message to The Mother Church for 1902,” p. 17).
We feel this “conscious worth” as we welcome the larger scope of satisfaction into our lives. In finding and nurturing the expression of our innate identity as the image of Spirit, God, we find joy in contributing at work, home, or in the community. As we are imbued with the hunger to magnify God for everyone’s benefit, we make real traction.
Jesus reassured us: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:10, 11). As needed expressions of infinite intelligence and divine Love, we demonstrate God, the source of the good and helpful qualities that animate us, and these qualities are manifested in healthier bodies, lives, and communities.
