I can think of all kinds of reasons for not being happy. In fact, the reasons are so numerous and compelling that I’m often not happy, and I don’t mind sharing those reasons. I would, after all, be quite sad if you didn’t know why you should be sad.
You should not be happy, because the world is messed up. The world is broken, screwed up, twisted, corrupted. You need only to walk down some hideous alley to see for yourself. Broken windows, sagging doors, mangy dogs, evil cats, hungry children, tattooed criminals, and reeking dumpsters speak all too clearly of brokenness and corruption. The next time you feel like being happy, just think of a stinking back alley, and the sweet cloud of despair is sure to darken your day.
I thought I had a long list of reasons why you should not be happy, but, come to think of it, every reason I have comes back to the fact that we live in a messed up world. Somewhere way back in the dark past, some lady fell prey to a talking serpent, and now the world and all of life is just plain messed up and broken. Our relationships with God and fellow humans are now nothing but dismal shadows of what ought to be. We try to get to know each other, but we can’t. Actually, most of us don’t really want to know other people; we would rather live in our cracked and crusty shells, safe from the prickly shards of brokenness. We try to talk to God, but he sits behind a granite cloud, it seems, incapable of hearing our feeble, hollow, shaky prayers. Broken relationships is an excellent reason not to be happy, but, like I’ve already mentioned, this stems from the brokenness of our world.
When that talking serpent beguiled the lady, he introduced to a perfect world that hideous thing of rebellion, the dark and sinister attitude that cripples every honest institution. God had a place for Lucifer, but it wasn’t good enough, so Lucifer became the devil by virtue of his rebellion. Now, our world is full of rebellious little devils, because most of us don’t want anybody telling us what to do. The really bad little devils become criminals and end up in correctional institutions and holding pens, commonly called prisons. Criminals, generally, are quite unhappy. Why? Because they got caught for their misbehavior. They sit in prison, because someone judged their conduct unethical and damaging to society. If you think you want to be happy, just think of all your tax money that goes to paying prisons whose chief purpose is to clothe, feed, and house bad guys who, more often than not, come back. Again, this reason stems back to the first—namely, that our world is broken and corrupted.
If, after considering these several reasons, you’re still suffering from happiness, allow me to offer a few more. We have, so far, considered rather generic reasons. There are many other, more specific ones. Making breakfast, for example, gives ample opportunity for things to happen that could deepen the gloom. I like my toast toasted just enough to have a light brown hue, but it can happen that while I’m rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I fail to notice that the previous toaster operator left it set to the extreme. Five minutes later, the toast gleefully explodes from the machine, having completely changed its atomic structure. No longer is it bread; it’s now nothing but a crunchy slice of carbon. That, my dear reader, is reason enough to stumble around all day with my head in a black cloud, a cloud emanating the aroma of badly burnt toast.
Many, many more possibilities regularly present themselves, but here’s another specific scenario that could easily evoke much unhappiness. You’re on your way to a friend’s wedding, driving your brand-new 2019 Volkswagen Jetta when the oil pressure light comes on, the motor gives a hideous clanking and banging, and the car grinds to a shuttering halt. I think, unless you’re some strange, unearthly human, that you will find it fairly easy not to let yourself get too happy. This might be an extreme example, but it is generally true that vehicle failure, or failure of any kind of equipment, gives us grand reason to put away happiness.
Maybe the most compelling reason for embracing unhappiness is the death of someone we love. When cold Death steals the last breath of our friend or family member, the cold, steel rain of despair washes away all traces of happiness. It is quite easy then to allow ourselves the sweetness of cynical despondency and depression. Happiness is hardly a temptation.
I think you’ve probably caught on by now, dear reader, that I’ve been writing somewhat facetiously. I really do not intend to convince you that you should not be happy. In fact, my goal is just the opposite. I want you to find hope and happiness, even in the face of what appears to be utter hopelessness and despair. Frankly, I don’t have an easy answer to this question. I don’t really know how to be genuinely happy, even if everything is going well. I tend to be gloomy just because I have a hard time coming up with a good reason to be happy. My natural orientation is toward gloomy cynicism. But that’s not the way it ought to be. I think we ought to be happy, simply because that’s the way God wants it.
The Little Sage Who Couldn't 