When Are Good Things Wrong, And When Are They Right?

When are good things wrong, and when are they right?

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

1 Timothy 6:17

What should be rejoiced in, if not the Lord of life himself, who is the everlasting joy and glory of the saints?

RICHARD BAXTER

WHEN WE WORSHIP God as God, everything else falls into place—good food and drink are delightful; friendship is fulfilling; marital sex can be deeply satisfying; and work, hobbies, sports, music, and entertainment can all enrich our lives as intended.

If I’m not happy in God when I see a waterfall or hear a great symphony or see a child playing in a mud puddle or watch a dog chasing his tail, then I’ll not be happy in God when I attend church, read the Bible, or pray. I may congratulate myself for my spirituality when my eyes are on myself rather than him, but that’s being pleased with my supposed piety, not being happy in God.

Idolatry is looking to the secondary as the source of happiness rather than as a conduit. What’s good ceases to be good when we give it the prominence that should be reserved for God.

The child who loves to play basketball as one part of his life can one day look back with fond memories and look forward to what’s next. The adult who makes basketball the center of his life still ruminates on his childhood successes and failures, and is devastated when his kids don’t make the team or when his favorite team loses. The problem isn’t basketball; the problem is turning basketball (or anything else) into the main thing. If it’s the main thing, it’s our god.

Is it really okay for me to enjoy my family, taco salad, books, and biking? Yes, if they’re part of enjoying God and not alternatives to him. As long as they remain under him and I thank him for the happiness he brings through them, they can’t compete with him.

While taking a break from writing about happiness, I experienced a series of events that illustrated the relationship between the secondary and primary.

First, I stood on our deck and looked up at the cold night sky, filled with the familiar stars I’ve known and loved since childhood. Then I returned to the warm house and pondered the immensity and beauty of the universe.

Once inside, I looked at a chair with Nanci’s Bible beside it. She’s part of a team that writes and edits lessons for our church’s weekly women’s Bible study, and that day she’d led the study. I thanked God for her, my best friend and a woman of the Word. I pondered how Nanci and I have known each other for forty-seven years and that I love her more than ever. I marveled at God’s grace in bringing us together and thanked him for our two wonderful daughters and our grandchildren. At that moment Maggie, our golden retriever, sidled up and put her paw on my knee.

I stroked Maggie’s head, and she gazed into my eyes and sighed deeply. I thanked God for dogs and for Maggie in particular, and I contemplated how God reveals glimpses of himself through his creation. Maggie is loyal to me; God is loyal. She’s beautiful; God is the maker of all beauty. Maggie makes me happy many times a day. But because I understand Maggie’s true nature and role, I realize it is God, in his kindness, who makes me happy through her. So I poured out my heart in gratitude to him.

All these secondary things are important because they point me to God, the primary. During that break from writing about happiness, I realized I am profoundly happy—and that all this happiness comes from the hand of God!

I love snorkeling and taking underwater photos of God’s sea creatures. I look at photos years later, some of them hanging in our home and my office, and they take me back to those magical moments of discovery. Through the photos, raccoon butterfly fish and Christmas wrasses reach out to me from their homes in the reef. The pictures rekindle my original delight when, peering into the dark shadows, I saw a puffer fish peeking back with huge eyes and a frogfish masterfully disguising itself as part of the reef. I remember the sudden discovery of a moray eel lurking behind two giant sea turtles and the thrill of seeing one whitetip reef shark, then five, emerging from a cave below me. I recall swimming in the open ocean and suddenly becoming part of a pod of dolphins as they wove their way next to and around me, seemingly adopting me as part of their pod. What wonder and worship!

The simple, daily cultivation of God-consciousness has had a central role in the increasing happiness I’ve experienced over the years. I often have coffee with God, and sometimes I have a meal alone with him. Occasionally when I’m praying, and those who’ve read my novel Safely Home may relate to this, I pull out a chair for Jesus and envision him occupying it (not only did he sit in chairs, he also built them!). I talk to him. I’m not pretending Jesus is with me at lunch or when I pray; I simply believe his promise that he really is with me and I act in keeping with it. If you want to be happy, put meaning to the sometimes empty phrase “spending time with God.”

When we invite God into our happiness, we become aware of how he invites us into his. The happiest times of my life are when I’ve entered into the happiness of God—not only through Bible study, prayer, and church, but also when reading a good book, laughing with a friend, running, biking, and enjoying the wonders of his creation. It’s a glorious thing to know God and love him through loving the world he has made—and anticipating the day when that world will be all he intends it to be.

God, thank you for your incredible creativity in making the beautiful, sprawling, detailed, and fascinating universe you’ve placed us in. The small portion we’ve discovered is enough to surprise and delight us for ages to come. How we long for the day when the adventures begin anew and without hindrance—an eternity of discovering still more about you through the wonders of the New Heaven and New Earth!