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I submit you put too narrow and literal a meaning on ‘happiness.’ Its context in the DoI is philosophical and involves freedom ‘in the pursuit of’ happiness. The concept involves more than whistling as you drive down the road with the top down on a beautiful, balmy afternoon.

I don't believe that either betty or I was defining 'happiness' as consisting of anything as superficial or fleeting as 'whistling as we drive down the road with the top down on a beautiful, balmy afternoon.'

I do not know your religious beliefs, or lack thereof, so please interpret most of the following as being based on my own beliefs -- a personal view of the subject at hand -- certainly not to be mistaken as immutable for anyone else. I don't embrace or presume such arrogance. :)

I can't speak for betty, but in my original post, in which I stated: any time I ‘pursued’ happiness, I rarely, if ever, achieved my goal. And the happiest times in my life have always occurred simply as a by-product of making ‘right’ choices (as opposed to convenient, self-serving, or popular ones)', I was referring to much more tangible, powerful examples (than your 'balmy afternoon' reference) of goals that I once believed would play a large part in my achieving 'happiness'. Those goals were often relationship, or career, or wealth, or creature comfort, or socially or professionally status-related.

I have experienced in my own life, and have witnessed in others', the fact that, if we convince ourselves that 'pursuing' a specific goal will increase our 'happiness quotient', once the 'pursuit' ends, we are often left feeling a certain letdown ... a palpable void -- because none of the goals that I mentioned above (or others that are also commonly included in the 'average' modern American's definition of the achievement of 'happiness') are ever guaranteed to last. Nor is their achievement guaranteed to produce the desired result. Any one of them could be taken from us in a heartbeat. And none of them necessarily permanenetly adds to our sense of personal peace and contentment.

I have found that, when we 'pursue' happiness of a wordly nature, we neglect the more important personal peace and contentment that is achieved by recognizing that lasting 'happiness' is almost always a byproduct of 'right' choices, made as a result of thinking in more eternal dimensions. And that kind of thinking leaves little room for focusing intently on ('pursuing') fleeting (in the grand scheme of things), physical-world (often material, or material-related) aspirations.

I have discovered (after much trial and error :) that lasting happiness is achieved as a secondary, often unexpected, result of decisions and behaviors that are 'goodness'-based, and such happiness cannot be taken away, only increased, over time.

There is an unmistakable difference between the way the Bible defines happiness (or 'blessing') and the way our culture promotes it. Happiness in our culture is inevitably self-centered, and the result of what others do for us, or what we earn through personal industry and acquisition. The focus is on ourselves, and how to satiate our appetites, or gain affirmation, acknowledgment or attention.

I cannot envision any other kind of happiness that would be 'pursued' than the kind described above. 'Pursuit' implies an active, goal-oriented focus.

Deep and lasting happiness is not self-centered, it is God-centered. It blossoms rather than appearing as a trophy standing on some distant finish line, waiting to be 'pursued' ... waiting to be 'earned'. Deep and lasting happiness blesses our lives when we entrust our lives to Him, and daily strive to be the people He would have us be -- not when we focus our lives on our notions of personal physical or emotional needs or desires.

I have always considered the final paragraph of John Wesley's obituary as evidence of a man who had a 'corner on happiness' that few of us ever enjoy:

Though his taste was classic, and his manners elegant, he sacrificed that society in which he was particularly calculated to shine; gave up those preferments which his abilities must have obtained, and devoted a long life in practising and enforcing the plainest duties. Instead of being, 'an ornament to literature', he was a blessing to his fellow creatures; instead of, 'the genius of the age,' he was the servant of God!

~ joanie

I have experienced in my own life, and have witnessed in others', the fact that, if we convince ourselves that 'pursuing' a specific goal will increase our 'happiness quotient', once the 'pursuit' ends, we are often left feeling a certain letdown ... a palpable void -- because none of the goals that I mentioned above (or others that are also commonly included in the 'average' modern American's definition of the achievement of 'happiness') are ever guaranteed to last. Nor is their achievement guaranteed to produce the desired result. Any one of them could be taken from us in a heartbeat. And none of them necessarily permanenetly adds to our sense of personal peace and contentment.... I have discovered (after much trial and error :) that lasting happiness is achieved as a secondary, often unexpected, result of decisions and behaviors that are 'goodness'-based, and such happiness cannot be taken away, only increased, over time.

Oh, we see so "eye-to-eye" on this issue, joanie-f!

Thank you so very much for this magnificent post/essay!

Thank you so much for the beautiful essay-post and testimony!

Deep and lasting happiness is not self-centered, it is God-centered. It blossoms rather than appearing as a trophy standing on some distant finish line, waiting to be 'pursued' ... waiting to be 'earned'. Deep and lasting happiness blesses our lives when we entrust our lives to Him, and daily strive to be the people He would have us be -- not when we focus our lives on our notions of personal physical or emotional needs or desires.

So very true. The word "joy" applies. It is the second fruit of the indwelling Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance - Gal 5:22-23)

As a Christian walks with the Lord and learns to trust Him, he is able to "count it all joy" no matter what the "it" is (James 1:2).

Here is a case-in-point from 1999 when Larry Ashbrook walked in on a youth service in a local Baptist church and slaughtered seven and wounded seven:

NewsMax 9/21/99 Bill Murchison “….On the assumption that Satan, enlisting the help of Larry Gene Ashbrook, set out last week to intimidate Christians ... well, did this unholy pair pick the wrong church! Liberal Protestants of hazy theological outlook -- that might have been one thing. But Southern Baptists! No one in his right mind would put forward the Baptists as subject matter for spiritual intimidation. Confronted, menaced, jeopardized, Baptists reach for a familiar object -- the Holy Bible. They open it, they brandish it, they thrust it right in the Devil's face. Just how heart-warming it was to see them do so on a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon, in Texas Christian University's football stadium, I beg here and now to report. The Baptists, to every appearance, have it right: Spiritual warfare rages in our midst.

“….The Baptists know all this [secularism] Their most engaging trait is that they don't care. They set forth the Truth as they have received it, that Jesus Christ died for your sins. Case in point: the Fort Worth commemoration. The occasion is ostensibly civic. The mayor is a speaker; Gov. George W. Bush and other office-holders have come as non-speakers just to reinforce the sense of public outrage and grief. A rabbi prays. I spot Moslems in the crowd. ….

Yet the occasion is saturated with Christian joy. There's an odd word -- "joy.'' What's joyous about the desecration of a house of worship and the slaughter of teenage worshippers and counselors? Nothing is "joyful'' about evil. Joy, as the Baptists of Fort Worth would make known, comes with God's response to evil. Does He leave it to fester? Hardly. He points to the victory already won, and in the end to be lastingly consummated, through His son's death and resurrection. It's right there in those Bibles waved under Satan's snoot. Nor does it stop even there, you dumb lunk with the pitchfork! Christians inside and outside the Southern Baptist Convention would affirm this reality….

“….Affirm? A mild word for what goes on at the stadium. What about the father of one of the victims, leading the audience/congregation in the singing of a song his murdered daughter had loved? What about the pastor of the desecrated church, the Rev. Al Meredith, whomping up a classic Baptist revival on the spot -- a call to fasting and repentance and prayer? "Raise your hand if you want the killing to stop -- if you want to see the spirit of the living God sweeping over our land like wildfire.'' Up in the air -- a forest of affirming arms, one of them attached to an Episcopalian journalist. Bad news for Satan. He's stirred up the Baptists -- folk who take him with the deep seriousness his malice deserves. The culture wars may have taken a decisive turn….”

Perhaps the Declaration of Independence was speaking to some secular concept of "happiness" - or perhaps it was speaking to property as in the Virginia Declaration of Rights - or perhaps both. But it surely was not speaking of Christian joy which requires only Him - and cannot be diminished at all by poverty, murder, persecutions, injustices, sickness or death.