Happiness is a daily choice

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

The human condition is often marked by frailty and grief. It is easier to be happy when we're celebrating birthday parties, anniversaries, and other celebrations with loved ones, but it becomes harder to find things to be happy about in the days following laying the final dirt on our loved one's gravesite when all those foreign emotions rise from within to cause us to be sad.

When we are truly missing someone we once had in our life, it isn't easy to be happy- not with the free-flowing tears flooding our cheeks causing them to be raw. I've learned from my grief recovery process that happiness is a series of choices we make on an hour by hour, day by day and week by week basis. We have to choose to find things that bring the occasional smile to our face- whether it is encouraging a friend across the globe who is going through difficult times or telling a clean joke to someone else in the need of cheering up.

The human condition is often marked by pain.  Forest Gump's famous line from the movie was "My mama always says Life was like a box of chocolates- you never know what you're going to get" was a reminder to Forest that life will be filled by both joy and happiness and also by pain and grief- like sucking on something with two opposite tastes we're  trying to decide which one to hate the most. 

It seems that pain is felt like never before with the 24-7 sensationalized news with all of its high definition coverage. ABC news anchor, Peter Jennings, came out of retirement to cover 9-11 when he took up smoking again to help him cope with the stressful job of news coverage- it wasn't much longer that he died from lung cancer.

The human condition is marked by pain, so much so, that we have to choose to take a break and focus on things that rejuvenate our 'happiness' hormones. Some of these examples are:

looking at pictures of our loved ones

calling your adult children an tell them you love them and praying for them

going out with your loved one to a nice restaurant or a show afterward

looking for ways to make your loved one smile

encouraging a friend 
walking outdoors and getting some exercise
accepting change as a new tife transition

grabbing your bible and going to that weekly bible study or Church service

The human condition is often marked by pain, but the good news is that God sent his Son to die for each of us and be raised from the dead so that He can help us recover from this human condition marked by pain. 

Happiness can be like the elusive jackrabbit getting away from us or that box of chocolates with those hard insides we wished we never took. 

In order to catch that happiness, we need to navigate through all of the emotions of our pain, through whatever loss we're enduring- not burying it or stuffing it inside a corked bottle, but facing them one at a time.

When we do that, we may be singing the famous song by Parrell Williams while venturing outdoors and enjoying the things God has created in our world.