Quarantined Happiness

How can you be happy when your source of happiness has been quarantined?

Everyone wants to be happy; we make this elusive ideal a lifelong pursuit: succeeding in our careers, marrying our “ideal” partner, traveling around the globe, obtaining material possessions, spending money, and making memories with family and friends. But if our happiness depends on circumstances, what will happen if we do not get the promotion we’ve been working on for years, face a love that will not be able to walk down the aisle, become financially incapable of traveling or spending, lose our material possessions, loved one dies, and the party is over? Often happiness flees and despair sets in.

Joy stands in contrast to happiness. Joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God’s love and work in our lives – that he will be there no matter what! It runs deeper and stronger. Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ.

Joy is a dominant theme in the letter sent by Paul to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and deacons (Philippians 1:1-2). But if we look back to the history of Philippians, it was written around A.D. 61, during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. He wrote this letter to the Philippians to thank some dear friends who had sent him money while he was under house arrest. Paul tells them in this letter about a joy that does not depend upon external circumstances because it is rooted in Jesus Christ, who gives it freely.

The first chapter talks about joy in suffering while the second one focuses on joy in serving. In relation to the pandemic we are facing, many of us are suffering while others were called to serve. We are all desperate to be free from COVID-19 infection, to have our country recover from all the turmoil brought by the pandemic, and to be able to go back to our normal lives. But we are being reminded that we, as Christians, are to be joyful in every circumstance, even when things are going badly, even when we feel like complaining, even when no one is joyful.

Frontliners are not the only group of people who are called to serve. All of us are. Theirs may be a noble calling in today’s circumstance, but it doesn’t mean that we will slack off. We can serve the frontliners too by praying for them, for their families, and the people whom they are serving. We are called to serve the people around us by extending help in any means we could. We don’t have to be wealthy in order to help. We, using the overflow of our God-given resources, can be a blessing to our neighbors whom we are called to love just as how Christ has loved us.

Christ is sovereign. He is always in control, and we still know him, so we can rejoice at all times. If you think your happiness has been quarantined, prolly it’s about time to reflect, pray, and go back to the ultimate source of our joy and satisfaction, Jesus Christ.