Happiness: A Personal Reflection

HAPPINESS:

A PERSONAL REFLECTION

By Hadje Sadje

Happy? My partner asked me when I finally see the ‘See-through Church’ or ‘Doorkijkkerk’ of Borgloon, Belgium. But why I should be happy? In 2011, the two young Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenberg designed and constructed the Doorkijkkerk (Argyriades, 2011). It was built as a traditional local chapel but, uniquely, a transparent church. It is made of steel (100 steel sheets) weighing a colossal 30 tons (Argyriades, 2011). Purposively, Gijs and Van Vaerenberg separated the 100 steel sheets so that the landscape around can always been visible, from inside and outside---BRILLIANT! (Argyriades, 2011). Perhaps, for my partner this is the reason why I should be happy, but deep inside me, I am searching for happiness, not just being happy. I believe that is not what happiness means. I felt this battle in me. Of course, it is very important to live in the present moment, and be happy every single day. However, many positive psychologists argue, being happy is not the same as happiness. For them, being happy is a product of short-term events (momentarily), while happiness is a product of meaningful life events (Goodman et al., 2017).

When we travelled back home, I was remained haunted by the questions, what is happiness? how can I find happiness? and what is happiness means in the age of covid? As might be expected, various people response to these questions in different ways. Yet, many people find it hard to realise happiness in troubling times, for example, in the midst of COVID-19. Today, an extreme preoccupation with happiness. In fact, happiness became a philosophical, psychological, and cultural obsessions (Gregoire, 2014). This become evident that there are hundreds, even thousands of self-help books that will help people find happiness (de Merwe and Johannes, 292-293).

While there are many different understandings of happiness, happiness is generally linked to experiencing more positive feelings than negative. For many, it is difficult to experience authentic happiness while people experiencing anxious and no peace. In short, happiness with sadness and pains has no meaning. Conventionally, happiness constitute feeling of joy (personal strivings), satisfaction, contentment (materialistic and non-materialistic aspirations), and fulfilment (Nesse and Williams, 1994). For example, many people believe that if a person spend more time with friends and family, it makes a big difference to how happy we feel. Others argue that if a person attained his/her dream, one can live a truly happy life. While some believe that people have to be rich and famous to become happy in life. Or perhaps, millennials assert that traveling around the world makes them a happier person. But when a person defined happiness too individualistic (“I don’t give a shit” or “I don’t give a fuck”) over sense of community, I believe, it leads to a path of self-destruction.

In his book titled, Happiness (2019), a French philosopher, Alain Badiou problematises the concept of happiness. For Badiou, our concept of happiness must seek to move away from egoistic, capitalistic, and economic functions. For Badiou, happiness is not about getting what you want, everything is perfect, and pleasurable. Badiou argues that happiness is risk-taking experience because it asks how to change the world (89). It is a risky task, as Badiou argues, that may lead to social change or social transformation (41-42). Badiou writes, ‘...happiness is not the possibility of the satisfaction of everyone. Happiness is not the abstract idea of a good society in which everyone is satisfied’ (89). Happiness is about more than individual attainment and pleasure. In other words, people are more likely to become unhappy because injustices everywhere. Happiness arises to challenge innumerable injustices against the poor, weak, and marginalised groups. More importantly, happiness sought to promote the service to others, public commitment, and common good---Change the World.

Although philosophy and theology have diverse and often opposite views of happiness (Verhoef, 2018), I believe that Badiou’s concept of happiness conglomerates of what the Scripture view of happiness. Like Badiou’s concept of happiness, what biblical view of happiness brought to believer’s life was allowing themselves to feel connected to the pain of the world. Jesus said:

Blessed (Happy) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed (Happy) are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed (Happy) are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed (Happy) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed (Happy) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed (Happy) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed (Happy) are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed (Happy) are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5: 1-12).

Although overwhelmingly the bible translators preferred the word ‘blessed’, it can be also be translated as ‘happy’ (The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 2003). Moreover, for Christ, it is impossible to serve God at the same time and ignore God’s call to care for the poor, vulnerable and marginalised groups. He argues that happiness is found in serving others, especially the poor, weak, and the marginalised groups. He wanted his disciples to meet a single person who is needy. Of course, there is nothing wrong with personal achievement (Western bias of individualism). Yet one of the best ways of discovering happiness is by contributing to the happiness of our fellow human beings and society.

Happiness is realised, as Christ shows, if our care for the most vulnerable group is tantamount to the way we serve God. This radical call may involve personal sacrifices of goals and aspirations. In fact, Christ demands his disciples to lay down their lives for others (1 John 3: 11-24). It does not sound very good, but that is what happiness means for Christ. In short, that is the cost of discipleship. In his famous book titled The Cost of Discipleship (1948), Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:

The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ---suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death---we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god---fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die (44).

Alive, Alive, Alive Forevermore! My Jesus is Alive Forevermore!