With apologies for the mini hijack on "happiness," and belief in a Supreme Being (principally God in Bible), I want to expound on Martha. In MERE CHRISTIANITY, C.S. Lewis talked about the existence or forces of good and evil, and how through free will, God allowed evil to exist (I’m not doing any justice to much deeper thoughts, but go along with the premise). Lewis proffers:
Quote:
How did the Dark Power go wrong? Here, no doubt, we ask a question to which human beings cannot give an answer with any certainty. A reasonable (and traditional) guess, based on our own experiences of going wrong, can, however, be offered. The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first—wanting to be the center—wanting to be God in, fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with s*x, but that is a mistake. (The story in the Book of Genesis rather suggests that some corruption in our sexual nature followed the fall and was its result, not its cause). What Satan out into the heads our remote ancestors was the idea that they could “be like gods”—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, part from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empire, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
This is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended—civilizations are built up—excellent institutions devised; but each time, something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and run a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans.
Now, trust me that a few years ago I could never imagine getting this deeply into theology and God. But from a solution-based-therapy standpoint, despite the turmoil in my personal life, my journey to God, has brought me some of the greatest joy and contentment in my life. Those are measurable results. And I have a hard time believeing that it's just a matter of "whatever works for you," as opposed to being the Truth. God is forever.
I now return this thread back to its usual discourse.
