Call It Like It Is

Mother Teresa was not happy, we now learn.

Lot of times people split hairs over happiness and joy. I'm not so sure there is a difference of kind, only of degree. At any rate, it doesn't sound like she had either. However you want to put it, she did not feel good. Spiritual darkness, I guess she said. That doesn't sound good no matter how you slice it.

But nobody is going to disagree, I think, that Mother Teresa did a heck of a lot of good for people and led the kind of life God would approve of.

Therefore, I am going to call it like I see it, as it struck me from her words, as it has struck me in my life, as it has struck me in others' lives.

I would like to suggest that there is not, after all, a correlation between pleasing God and feeling good. I would like to suggest that one can please God and feel good, or please God and not feel good, or not please God and feel good, or not please God and not feel good (that option pretty much sucks).

Happiness, joy, whatever you want to call it - a sense of well-being, a sense that you feel being alive is a worthwhile thing, a thing which you wish to continue doing - this depends on many many factors. Genetics, circumstance, diet, exercise, habit, health, brain chemistry, who knows all the things, probably pleasing God comes into it somewhere for some of us. But there are a lot of factors that affect it.

Therefore, I would further like to suggest that pleasing God is something we do simply because we want to please God, if and when we do it. We can expect no other results. But I would also like to suggest that "the pursuit of happiness", understood properly, is also a worthwhile endeavor. I think it is not only not wrong, but in fact Good, to be happy if one can possibly manage it. Thoreau thought so too, I discover as I am reading Walden. He thought that health - not physical health but the health of the whole person - and Living could add more benefit to the lives of those around us than sympathy with suffering. I don't know that I'd go so far as to throw in the word "more" there, but other than that, I think he may have a point.

I am going to dare to say it, then. I am happy.