In part one I posed a question, is happiness a thing or a person? In this part two we will also see the real meaning of happiness or the pursuit of it by Thomas Jefferson and the American founding fathers. We will therefore be digging deeper, and if you have not read part 1, kindly do so for a better understanding of this topic.
Looking at America for instance happiness has always been a critical part of health and well-being. In the US, the “pursuit of happiness” is given as an inalienable right. This right opens man to varied and very complicated choices, so those who are ruled only by their flesh pursued all manner of harmful pleasures and desires, but those whose spirit are ruled and guided by the Spirit of God have chosen the right part.
This ideology that men can have and do what they want has opened the door for the devil to twist the minds of people and enslave them with all manner of unthinkable and despicable acts, all in the quest for happiness or so they think.
Just few days I was watching a video of a lady who had gone through very many stages of surgery to be a man. She was sharing very painful experiences she had had trying to transit from being a woman to a man and crying and regretting every move she had made. She was crying out, warning people who were planning to have sex changes about the dangers and deceit of it all. I cried with her and hoped many will watch and have a change of mind.
Oh, how we have all been deceived especially some Americans who do not have a better understanding of that happiness component in the American declaration of Independence. This happiness component am sure is what has misguided, deceived and confused many in America and most other countries of the world as US is seen as a role model and a major influencer of world systems and cultures.
You might be wandering why the emphasis on America in this post?. This is because American is a cultural super power with far reaching influence all over the world. Hollywood in particular has played a major role influencing the culture of others especially Africans from religion to politics, economics, social relationships etc.
Dr. Jack Lule writing in his book “Cultural Imperialism” stated that “Nongovernmental corporations can now drive global culture. This he said is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. On one hand, foreign cultural institutions can adopt successful American business models, and corporations are largely willing to do whatever makes them the most money in a particular market—whether that means giving local people a shot at making movies, or making multicultural films such as 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire“.
However, cultural imperialism he continued, ‘has potential negative effects as well. From a spread of Western ideals of beauty to the possible decline of local cultures around the world, cultural imperialism can have a quick and devastating effect’.
For more on this book please click on this link https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/culture-and-media/s16-06-cultural-imperialism.html
In a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum] detailed in this link
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
You, just like me, will have a better understanding of what the word Happiness meant in that declaration.
In the transcript according to Don Hooser ‘The American Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, contains these famous words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (emphasis added).
Don Hooser
Stay with me please!
Understanding the history and meaning of this sentence Don says is worthwhile because it has been called “one of the best-known sentences in the English language” (Lucas, “Justifying America,” 85) and “the most potent and consequential words in American history” (Ellis, American Creation, 55—56).
Don then did a three-article series to show from the Bible that God has granted humanity considerable freedom—freedom which is highly valuable and which man should try to preserve, protect and use for godly purposes.
Another purpose of his article is to explain what Thomas Jefferson and the American founders were thinking when they wrote that one of our natural rights is “the pursuit of happiness”. In this 21st century, some people falsely assume that what the founders had in mind was a kind of shallow devotion to perpetual pleasure and emotional bliss. They use the noble phrase “pursuit of happiness” to justify self-centered hedonism. “
Benjamin Franklin was in agreement with Thomas Jefferson (the primary author of the Declaration) in downplaying protection of “property,” replacing the idea with “happiness.” This broader concept (the right to pursue happiness) is traceable through the Federalist Papers of John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. However, “happiness” is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, while “property” is.
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares that no citizen can “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
This is where the crux of the matter is.
Today, many people he said consider the pursuit of happiness a high priority, but in a way much different than the American founding fathers had in mind. Today’s self-centered, touchy-feely society is dominated by materialism, humanism and hedonism—hedonism being the “pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition).
To the founding fathers, the right for Americans to pursue what they think will make them happy is a broad extension of the God-given rights to life and liberty. What the founders wanted really was to make it clear that people’s liberties go well beyond being free from tyrannical rule or imprisonment. They really wanted people to know that God intended for them to enjoy the gift of life, freedom and to own a piece of the earth [property] as given to man by God.
I totally agree. If God Himself gave the earth to the children of men to tend and enjoy the fruits thereof, I am so sure that He will like them to actually have titled lands owned individually by them. This is how the scripture put it.
The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah; But the earth hath he given to the children of men. Ps 115:16 [ASV]
At this juncture I must pause to say a big thank you to Don for helping me write this post. Continuing in his article he brought in biblical backings that warns man of coveting pleasurable things more than the things that please and bless God. Don’s choice of scriptures aligned with those I would have chosen to buttress the issue being discussed here. In a parable about the sin of covetousness, Jesus warned against a craving to “take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry”.
life certainly does not consist of food drink and merry making things alone. There is surely a bigger purpose to one’s life and purpose in God and on earth. Jesus warns saying
“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Jesus goes ahead and calls any one like that man in this parable “a fool who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. “
Luke 12:15-21 [NKJ]
Apostle Paul also wrote saying;
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money…without self-control…headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”
2 Timothy 3:1-4.
The times we live in all over the world is a peculiar one. Life challenges are magnifying and defying all manner of human solutions. If anyone is seeking to be continually happy in this time and season, that one has set him or herself for misery and depression, cause these days happiness is more momentary and transient.
True, lasting happiness however can only be obtained by living a virtuous life and having a close relationship with God. In most Bible translations, the beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-10 begins with “Blessed are…” However, the Greek word translated “blessed” can also be translated as “happy.” If anyone can embrace the virtues of humility, empathy, meekness, holiness, mercy, purity, patience, peacemaking, and endurance, that one is an overcomer.
When negative situations pop up in one’s life as is wont to happen, that one is not easily swayed but is rooted in the joy that the Lord alone gives. So whether happy or not, that joy sustains the person knowing that feelings of happiness will turn up sooner or later. But demanding happiness from life always is a big fat lie and an illusion.
Jesus tells us in the word;
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33[NIV]
Don continues saying that much more than happiness, the Bible emphasizes joy. Happiness can be viewed as a temporary emotion based on what is currently happening, whereas joy can be a permanent state of mind. “God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight” (Ecclesiastes 2:26).
It’s natural to enjoy pleasure, but many people have their priorities upside down. They are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” when it should be the other way around. The United States has been blessed to have been founded by men and women who, in most cases, loved God more than they love pleasure. As powerful as prayer is, the US government have removed prayer from their schools.
Whaoo. Very refreshing article. Hardly can the belief of the founding fathers of America be said to be that of most Americans today. Government institutions have not helped matters because they have aided and abetted this hedonistic lifestyle by removing God and His word in all the places where they ought to have made godly impact in the lives of American people.
America alone however is not the only country that has relegated God in all the major institutions where He ought to have been instituted not just in the systems and structures but in the mind and lives of the people. The western culture has infiltrated most countries’ cultures and systems especially Africans and has left them morally poor. The mix matching of cultures has left a lot of very young people confused and not knowing who the rally are.
What constitutes happiness to an average American ought not to be what an African barely trying to irk out a living should be striving for. Why you must be asking now. Well expounding this here will bring digression from the topic at hand. The fact is that no man should compare their lives lived in a uniquely different environment with that of another. Everyone individually ought to as they seek and pursue happiness dig deeper to what should constitute real happiness.
I just love what the bible said about people not being wise when they compare themselves with others. [ 2nd Cor 10:12.]
The concluding part of this series will take a closer look at what happiness really ought to be, so we can all navigate the path way of life wiser and more secure in who truly is our happiness. I wish you a good life.
Please leave a comment below.
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