Happiness is About Your Perception of Circumstances

In a recent video (Dan Gilbert's TED talk “Why am I happy”) I had to watch for one of my human behavior classes, I must say it really hit home for me.  The first thing I thought was  how funny it is that people do all these studies and it only proves the what God has been telling us in His word. But yet we need all these statistics to prove something as Christians we should already know.


The main point of the video is happiness.  There are some themes that really stuck out  that I never placed together before.

This includes:

Anyone can be happy no matter what they are going through.  This is because happiness is about perception of your circumstances.  People that achieve happiness know that happiness is not contingent upon if they get their way or not.

This in a nut shell it means that if you have a million dollars and everything you want in life and this makes you happy. Are you still going to be happy if you lose everything?

This also means that if everything is going wrong for you and everything around you is falling part, if you perceive that  everything is “all good” then you are happy.

According to the video, this is a psychological fact.


Most people go through not being happy because they are not getting what they want.  I am one of those people.   When I would read Bible verses like

Hebrews 13:5 ESV

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”

and

1 Timothy 6:6 ESV

“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment”

I would think to myself that this is easy for God to say.  He is not broke, unemployed, stressed, struggling, single, alone, etc.  I would wonder “how can I be content with all the things that are going on around me?” And even more so, being content with the things that are lacking in my life, is supposed to lead to my enlightenment? Say What?!!

To explain this further I would like to take Psalm 23:4:

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”.


Put yourself in this situation.  How many times have you felt that you have been walking in the valley of the shadow of death?  Try not to take this literally, this could mean how many times have you thought your life was about to fall apart.  And how many times have you cried about it, allowing it to dictate your happiness?

What this verse essentially means is that no matter what you are going through, even if you are walking in a dark alley that leads to death, you will be content because you know there is a God.

Translate this to your current circumstances.  Are you unhappy? If so, why are you unhappy?

Is it because of what is going on around you?
Because you are not getting your way?
Not making as much money as you think you should?
Because you are single?

If these are the things that are making you unhappy then you being happy is really contingent upon something else.  You are saying that you are not happy with God being there for you alone, and you NEED something else to make you happy and if you do not get it, then you feel you will never be happy.

There is a problem with this type of thinking.  The reason being is because if you need X (X can be whatever) to make you happy, then when you get X and lose X then you will be unhappy. So you are making X the center of your world and not God.


Or better yet,  when you get X you will be happy for a while, and then you will be sad because you do not have Y (something else that you want). And this pattern will continue on to Z, A, B and C meaning that you will never be happy, because your always chasing something instead of appreciating what you have.

This is why God wants us to be happy in all things no matter what.  Have you ever considered the life of Paul or even John for that matter.  They were put in jail, beaten, thrown out of towns, but yet and still they remain happy.

In fact Paul says

Philippians 4:11-13 ESV

“For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

This is because he is able to perceive his situations in a different way.  He was able to see that what he was doing he was doing for God.  Therefore it did not matter that people hated him, put him in jail, or that he was not living in a mansion on a hill.  He was able to be happy, because he did not perceive his situation as bad.
Does that make sense?

For myself, when I do not get what I want, the whole world seems to be turned around and upside down.  I pout, moan, and groan about everything that is going on with me and how it is not fair.  But sometimes, I think God is just waiting for us to be happy wherever we are at.  This is because God wants us to be happy with Him, and not with what we have or do not have.


It is a interesting but hard lesson to learn.  In the world in which we live we define happiness based off of what we have.  But as we can see in history, many celebrities who HAVE can still be unhappy and even kill themselves.  I am convinced that this is what happens when people are unable to look for the positives in their situations and only focus on the negatives.

Or when they feel that the things of the world can satisfy them.When you are unable to see the positives in your life (no matter how small they may be) and you always focus on the negatives, then you will always be unhappy.  So turn you mind around, and realize that no matter where you are at, you can be happy.  There is always some type of blessing that you can thank God for every day to show Him your appreciation (even if it is just waking you up).  When you have mastered looking at whatever your going through as a good thing, then you have achieve true happiness.