“I just want you to be happy!“

“I hope you’re happy.”

“Make sure that if you do that, you’ll be happy!”

These phrases are thrown around constantly in our modern world, and I think they’re
especially common in America. At face value, they seem like rather kind sentiments. Nobody wants you to wish them harm, and most of us want our loved ones to have prosperous and happy lives. That’s just natural.

But I’ve come to realize that this desire for people to simply “be happy” isn’t what we should
wish for them, at least in an ultimate sense. After all, there is much more to life than smiles
and laughter

In our modern world, we seem to have an increasing desire to avoid any kind of pain coming
into our lives. Sometimes we decide not to take risks because we worry that our risk-taking
may result in disappointed hopes. Other times we may become apathetic or numb, so that
when pain does come, we simply don’t feel or react to it.

In one sense, this desire to keep pain at arm’s length is a natural one. God Himself weeps
when He thinks about the horrible eternal judgement that will come on those who rebel
against Him (Luke 19:41-44). But it is simply not possible to go through this life without pain
— this world is cursed, so there will be pain and suffering as long as we live!

But the pain we face is not meant to break us down, rather it is meant to build us up and
increase our faith.

No one would assign the adjective of “enjoyable” to losing their job, or tell you that their longtime battle with broken health was one of the happiest seasons of their lives. But hardships like these have incredible value — the Bible shows us that would not grow if we never experienced painful trials.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” — Romans 8:18

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” — 2 Corinthians 4:17

Many of life’s greatest and most powerful lessons are learned by experiencing pain. David
drew nearer to God during the years he spent fleeing from Saul, and Paul was made more
dependent on God through his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Imagine the
difference in the lives of these two men, along with countless others, if God had not allowed
them to go through the afflictions that He did!

If we spend our lives hoping and praying to avoid pain and suffering, we will miss out on the
incredible good God had planned to bring into our lives through those hardships. Fruits of
the Spirit will not be cultivated, our faith in and dependence on God will shrink instead of
increase, and we will not be able to “comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

That said, our lives are not meant to be wild tornadoes without any rest or prosperity coming our way. God delights in us and He gives us good gifts in His perfect timing (James 1:17) and at many times in our lives we will be able to say,

“The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance.” Psalm 16:6

Prosperity and material blessing does not mean that we are not good Christians, or that we are under punishment for our sin. Many faithful Christians have been chosen by God to enjoy great material prosperity, and there is nothing sinful about that!

But on the other hand, our lives will not always be filled with those “good times.” God may
allow us to have great seasons of hurt in the midst of our “pleasant places”. Embracing the
challenges that face us is a difficult thing to do, but it’s worth it! God is always with us through both the good times and the bad ones, and no matter what we face, He will never abandon us.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?… Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life… nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:31-32, 37-39