Today’s sermon is another of recent sermons having to do with the theme, Jesus Makes a Difference. Today we’re looking at how Jesus helps us deal with the daily news. In prior weeks we’ve examined how Jesus helps us handle suffering and at how he helps in our relationships to others.
Jesus also helps us with happiness. David Davenport reviews the book by Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox. Easterbrook keys off the old cigarette commercial, “Are you smoking more now but enjoying it less?” But he asks, “Are you living more now but enjoying it less?”
Outwardly things are great. During the last century our lifespan has increased from 41 to 77 years. “Indeed, as Easterbrook points out, the average American or European lives better than 99 percent of all human beings who lived before them, including royalty (better health care and higher quality wine edge them out).
“But opening a window on the inner life reveals a different picture. The percentage of Americans who describe themselves as ‘happy’ has not budged since the 1950s, even though the typical person’s real income has doubled during that time. In a 1997 poll, 66 percent of Americans told pollsters they believed ‘the lot of the average person is getting worse.’ Depression and loneliness are both on the rise.” (Imagine what Americans are saying now!)
Easterbrook goes on to probe why Americans and Europeans aren’t any happier than we are, but ultimately, says Davenport, the book seems stronger on diagnosis than on prescription.
In my opinion, Jesus is the prescription. Jesus makes such a difference when it comes to happiness. As a church member I know once said, “People don’t focus on it long enough, but the knowledge that we are loved by no less than the Creator of the Universe changes us. How can we not be happy knowing that now and forever God is taking care of us?” -DJ
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