Happiness That Is Guaranteed

When we consider our lives and where our energy, time, and attention are expended, we notice that a lot of it is used to serve things that will never give us lasting joy. For instance, we spend much of our time trying to take care of things that have finality. We buy clothes, but they have to be washed, tailored, and taken to the cleaners. Our possessions at home need to be dusted, vacuumed, cleaned, mopped, repaired, replaced, and so on. If you own a car, just look at the maintenance schedule of your car manual to see the care it requires. In addition, sometimes we have to work two or three jobs to earn the income to take care of our possessions. The labor and the enormous energy that this process consumes causes many of us to live very stressful lives. Because of the unnecessary exertion that we put into things and situations that are not going to give us lasting joy, we become stressed to the point where it is making us sick. It has been proven time and time again that stress causes serious diseases that are fatal. Too many people are dying unnecessarily because they are wearing themselves out in pursuit of things and situations that will never fulfill them.

Fortunately, there are times when we give ourselves a break from the stress; however, sometimes we don’t give ourselves the break we need and really desire. We try to eliminate our stress by returning to those same pleasures that didn’t last because we really don’t know where else to turn. So we come full circle: To get some relief, we go back to buying toys, killing ourselves to make more money, or trying to get rewards from society. We look for more sex or find a new drug on the market. Just as before, they may give us pleasure for a short while, but then stress returns. Tired of this unending cycle, the core of our being cries out: “If my possessions, money, success, drugs, sex, significant relationships, and other short-lived pleasures cannot give me lasting happiness, then what can? What can?”