What does happiness mean to you?

This was the name of an article in yesterday night’s Evening Standard. I know I have posted on this subject a bit over the three years since I have been doing iGod, but it seems to be still firmly in the public square and probably will continue to be during this deep recession.

If I was to ask you what makes you happy you may reply:

• Watching the sun come up on a remote beach in the Caribbean

• Getting the ‘all clear’ from a medical test

• Seeing your football team walk off with all four major competition cups

• Buying clothes in Regent Street and still having enough money to get home

• Having a long lazy lunch on a Sunday afternoon with your best friends

• Eating chocolate and still somehow managing to lose weight!

The writer of the article, who also so happens to be the owner of female site TopTips.com, is launching "Campaign for Happiness" today after seeing the most searched subject on their site was “How to be happy?“

Every day the site will ask people to share ideas on what makes them happy. The company will also give a donation to Cancer Research UK with a view of celebrating with someone who gets happiness being given the all-clear.

These are all wonderful things, and nothing which I wouldn’t want for myself or others, but I am struck by the thought that a deeper, more fulfilling form of happiness may lie in doing something for others beyond a donation or lying on a sun-soaked beach drinking exotic drinks with ice. Hmm! You're not convinced, are you?.

The article gives quotes from celebrities and public figures who have some ideas about what happiness is. Among them is a surprising quote from the author behind the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith:

“I follow Mma Ramotswe's advice on the subject of happiness. She is quite clear on this. She says that the surest way to be happy is to cause happiness in others and then to enjoy it oneself. I think she is right.”

What a great outward-focused attitude. Not to criticise Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg who was easily pleased with ‘peanut butter and jam on toast’, but we can think that true happiness starts with indulging ourselves before helping others. The pursuit of happiness can also be a necessary distraction to all the bad things going on, not least for our beleaguered MPs!

When we do acts of random kindness in our church like giving out doughnuts to public sector workers, buying a stranger a cup of coffee or tidy and paint someone’s flat we share in their happiness and that makes us feel happy too.

This kind of happiness feels significant and unselfish. Furthermore, it is not just emotional, but something that hard wires a spiritual connectedness between us and God. It comes with a heart to serve others because that is also on His heart.

Okay - not a very popular concept in today's culture, because we are conditioned to serve our own interests before others. Nevertheless, worth thinking about when it comes to understanding a contented life in Christ, don't you think?

ASD