"An evil man is snared by his own sin, but a righteous one can sing and be glad."
Sin undermines one's ability to rejoice. It leaves one with an underlying sense of guilt. It cannot fulfill one's deepest longings so it leaves him empty. It actually depletes the life and spirit of a man, so it leaves him feeling emptier than before he sinned. Thus, the snare is detected--sin seemed so desirable, seemed like the thing I really wanted to do. I was sucked in and came out diminished. In an effort to rebuild, I pursue another source--another immoral relationship, another person to belittle, another item to covet--something that promises the joy I desire, but leaves me a little more dehumanized than I was before. The evil man is snared by his own sin. Dennis Prager has said, "Fun is what you experience during an event, happiness is what you experience after an event." Many things that seem fun undermine your ability to be happy because they are, at their core, sinful.
Righteousness, however, gives everything it promises. The righteous person--one who believes and obeys God's revelation--finds himself happy and singing, the satisfaction of knowing that he is right with God and his neighbor. There is no cause for guilt, nothing to make him stumble.
2 comments:
Yout know what I find amazing?
Both the Bible and Dennis (who is not Christian, by the way) say that we fight our nature (his understanding of sin is a bit different, as he is a Jew), but here they are in complete agreement.
Since you are a pastor, do you think that you should also preach about "happiness"?
Because I know many Christians who are not happy and who could use some "Happiness Hour" of Dennis'
Though most Christians make their distinction between joy and happiness, I have found Dennis Prager's distinction between happiness and fun to be both synonymous and helpful--synonymous in that I think they are saying the same thing, and helpful in that I think we're better able to get our heads around it when we use the modern vernacular.
Should I preach on happiness? I believe it is the core of every message! One the one hand is God's glory displayed in Christ Jesus, on the other, our eternal happiness that compels us to seek His glory, love His Son, and trust His provision of forgiveness and righteousness. However, I do not believe that happiness as an outcome of psychological tools is sufficient pursuit or focus of a life or a sermon. Every principal that I have heard Dennis espouse during his "Happiness Hour"(I have heard many, though not all) I believe finds biblical support--no doubt the by-product of a shared Judeo-Christian heritage. But it's lacking the "other hand," that which seeks to display God's glory through Jesus Christ. In that message happiness moves beyond the temporal to the eternal and we find the source and the strength to be happy. So, I preach happiness. As John Piper has written, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." Or in the words of the Westminster Catechism, "What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."
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