Happiness Is

By Dennis Coates

“Happiness. What is it? Why is it so central to man’s being? Why is its pursuit central to man’s activity on earth? Does God have anything to say about happiness? Does God have anything to do with man’s happiness? Can we bring about our own happiness? Can we destroy our own happiness? Would anyone deliberately set

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Mar 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781948779531

Dennis Coates

Dennis Coates attended Catholic and public schools, became an accountant and corporate controller in a thirty-seven year business career. As long as he could remember he believed. Early on he became an altar server and recalls vividly serving early morning masses. ¬ is was the time Dennis was genuinely and permanently evangelized. At thirty-seven he experienced Christ in a deeply personal way. The following year he gave his life totally to the Lord. During a retreat Jesus told Dennis, "I want you to write." Four books followed: God Is My Shepherd, I Lack Nothing, Of Spirit and Presence, Evangelized! Dare I say it? and In the Power of God. In 2003, at age sixty-five, following retirement, Dennis wrote twenty-nine books over a seven year period of which Happiness Is was one.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Happy is He Who …

Happi ness.

What is it? Why is it so central to man’s being? Why is its pursuit central to man’s activity on earth? Does God have anything to say about happiness? Does God have anything to do with man’s happiness? Can we bring about our own happiness? Can we destroy our own happiness? Would anyone deliberately set out to be unhappy? Would unhappiness ever be our goal in life?

Happiness drives people – the search for it, that is. People don’t do this because they have nothing else to do. It is because happiness is at the very core of the meaning for their lives. Happy is what we are meant to be. Why is there so much unhappiness when happiness should mark our days? Why is man so unsure of what true happiness is? Why does man look in all the wrong places for happiness? Why does man dismiss God as irrelevant when God is the source of all happiness?

God is the source of all happiness. How does God give us happiness? How do we stay happy if we find happiness in God? What, exactly, is happiness?

You’ve heard the Beatitudes: how happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of God; happy the meek, they shall have the earth for their heritage; happy those who mourn, they shall be comforted; happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right, they shall be satisfied; happy the merciful, they shall have mercy shown them; happy the pure in heart, they shall see God; happy the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God; happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.¹

Happy they, happy those, happy the, happy is he or she who: These statements of Jesus tell where to look for happiness. They give us the secret to happiness that endures, that lasts, that survives whatever life brings us. They produce a state of heart and mind, or rather, they come from a state of heart and mind that is at peace, is whole and not fractured, is certain in its identity, knows who it is, and rejoices in it.

They also come from a heart and mind and spirit that are hopeful, that know a direction in life that is complete, and where nothing else is needed. No frantic search is on for something missing; no sense of emptiness fills the soul that nothing seems able to fill; no thrashing around for theories on how to be happy is undertaken.

Here in these short eight statements is the key to our happiness, each and every one of us, each and every person on earth, each and every person who ever lived. What do they mean? How do we unlock them? How do we obtain what they promise? How do we know they are true, and that we are not seeking in vain?

The key to happiness is simple: we need to know that we were made to be happy, and when we aren’t happy that fact alone is telling us that something is wrong. When we aren’t happy (meaning that we have peace and joy in our hearts and a sense that life is wonderful and rich and worthwhile), then we have to stop and take stock and ask the question, Why do I not have peace and joy in my heart; why do I not think life is wonderful and rich and worthwhile? The very state of our lives can lead us into an inquiry that has answers that can immeasurably advance our state of happiness.

We get a clue as to what contributes to happiness when we identify those things that contribute to unhappiness. Here are some things that make us unhappy: the break up of important relationships, the loss of a good job, the loss of security, the loss of a loved one, and the loss of direction in life. When we look at the opposites of these, we can see what contributes to happiness in life: having the stability of important relationships, having employment that uses our talents, feeling that all is okay and free of threats that create insecurity, having loved ones close at hand, and having a sense that my direction in life is good and worthwhile and from which I obtain peace of heart.

Life with God adds another key understanding to the quest for happiness when one comes to know the nature of God. God is good; God is whole; God is love; God loves; God is filled with joy by nature; God is giving; God is sharing of his happiness. Happiness originates in God and the creation of man in his image has imprinted on the soul of man not only the capacity for happiness but also the innate need for happiness. Man cannot stand to be unhappy; it is against his nature. Long-term unhappiness in man produces mental and emotional problems that compound the unhappiness. Man was born for happiness and wholeness and well-being. And when this doesn’t happen man strives to regain what he instinctively knows he should be.

So happiness is linked to God in a very direct way: man’s true happiness mirrors the happiness that is in God by his nature. Happiness is not something that God has to act at as though he didn’t have it. God cannot be unhappy, even though God can be angry at offences against goodness and love. God’s happiness is so deep he created man to share in it, and he created man with the capacity and need for happiness imprinted in his very being.

Can man be truly happy if he is separated from God? Yes, he can, because happiness is part of his nature. Man can be happy separated from God but in a limited way. The person separated from God can be happy in the sense that his material and emotional needs are met, and where he has found fulfillment in work or vocation. But his spiritual needs can never be fully met because they are linked to relationship with God.

And what are his spiritual needs? Man is also created for God, to be in union with God, and to be forever in the presence of God. Man needs God because God fulfills man in ways that nothing else in life can fulfill. So even if man achieves a degree of happiness when he is separated from God, he can never achieve the fullness of his humanity separated from God because this fullness comes from God alone, and is the fruit of relationship with God. God alone can give this fullness to man, and he gives it through relationship with him.

How can this be? Is it true? How can we test this claim to see if it is true, if it makes sense? The statement is that man’s fullness as a human being comes from God, and comes only as a product of relationship with him. Let us look at this statement, this claim, this proclamation, through three points of view to see if it makes sense.

The first point of view is from our own experience of life. When we have been the unhappiest in life what was it that brought it to an end? Let’s take, for example, the case where a person has chosen the wrong work to do for her career? Let’s suppose the person’s nature is to be calm and deliberate and is happiest when things proceed at a pace where she can remain calm and reason things out in an orderly fashion.

But let’s suppose also that, through the need for a job, the person takes on a job a friend had offered that is high pressure, demanding immediate decisions many times a day where there is no time for calm deliberation. This situation will eventually cause a deep upset in the person because the work is inimical to her disposition. The person’s own body will tell the person, through the development of a nervous condition or ulcers, that the situation can’t go on without doing serious harm to her well-being.

The person, once she becomes aware of what is going on, will then take steps to get work that is in harmony with her disposition. She will have learned something about herself that says she can’t do whatever she wants in life, that she has to take into account who she is as a human being in order to live a happy life. This is sometimes learned through trial and error; sometimes people have has a good feel for who they are and will avoid situations like this when the choice is first posed to them.

In like manner, the person who can compare his life without God to life with God comes to know the difference in the nature of the peace of heart that comes from authentic relationship with God. This very experience is a testimony to the truth of the statement that the deepest happiness comes from God through relationship with him. It can be said to those who are deeply unhappy, Give God a chance; this is exactly what he is all about. He wants our ultimate happiness, and given a chance, he will bring it about in our lives. Indeed, most of the time, when we are unhappy, we don’t associate our unhappiness with separation from God. At the deeper levels of our lives, at the most fundamental level, beyond our specific dispositions that call us to certain ways of life, the need for God is there, and this need is connected to our happiness. As St. Augustine said, Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.² This is the truth he spoke of.

The second example is of the person who doesn’t