If we are to understand how to be happy then we also need to get a handle on why we can be unhappy. It does sound a tad confusing but it is true. Happiness is fleeting if based on situations or a perspective of the current status of life. We may live with the idea that our emotional health is the sum total of our possessions. Perhaps our view of happiness centers on achievements in various arenas of life. Some people view happiness in terms of relationships which can be volatile at times. No doubt one reason happiness is so hard to attain is due to it being hard to define.

Once upon a time there was a young man who went looking for happiness only to find it in his own back yard. He isn't a terribly nice person when the story begins. His approach seemed to be to get what would be his long before it was due. In fact, he basically wishes his father dead in order to gain his inheritance. That inheritance gets him some so-called friends for a time. When the cash ran out, his friends went with it. Before long he is living in the worse squalor imaginable. The answer comes to him while trying to live and work among pigs with all the yuk they leave behind. Perhaps he can manipulate his father into giving him a job back home with the other paid employees. Imagine his surprise when he finds that his father is waiting in hope of a trip back home. Imagine his greater surprise when his father lavishes him with gifts then throws an enormous party to celebrate his return! How can he not be happy with all the failures of the past to find out just how big his father's heart really is?

Maybe you recognize that as the story of the prodigal son from Luke's gospel. It is an incredible story on so many levels. One of the lessons we can take is that being happy means letting go of the past. We cannot change the past events of life. But we do not need to live with the baggage of any past pain. Let me suggest that you simply be responsible for your part of life. You cannot be responsible for the bad behavior of others. I will be honest enough to say that I do not understand why some people can leave deep wounds in life. But my answer is that we have to bring those to God for His healing. Read through Psalm 55 to view a real life case of how one of God's own does just this.

There is one other thing we can do that the prodigal will discover. We can learn how to love. The greatest lesson on love and happiness is taught by God Himself in our story. We cannot naturally love the way that God does. It will be a result of becoming aware of just how amazing His love can be. How do we learn this? We admit our need of His love for our life. We learn to give to others our of that overflow of divine love. Can you picture what the prodigal must feel when being showered with love? That type of love may be past our ability to conceive but it is never beyond God's ability to give.

Bro. Trey