We are enticed to want many things. A new car. A vacation to an exotic destination. Designer clothes. A luxurious house. All of these things cost money. Often a lot of money. And we are enticed to want them so that we will spend our money on them making someone else richer in the process. This is simply the nature of capitalism. Create desire for things. So that people buy them. So that someone makes a lot money. A subtext to all of this may be that the thing you are being enticed to want and to buy will make you happy. Which usually doesn’t happen, so we buy something else, and another thing, and invest in another costly experience, but never seem to find the happiness we may have been seeking all along. But we are sure making those on top richer than rich in our futile quest.
It is interesting to me that we really aren’t told about Jesus teaching much about happiness. We hear about loving and serving and caring for others. We hear about love of enemy and turn the other cheek. We hear about being accepted and forgiven and healed. But there really isn’t a big focus on happiness in the gospels. Maybe that is because if you are living out your purpose, your role in the greater design, taking delight in the life, if you appreciate the sacredness of life, and the mystery of the cosmos, well then, you will have a beautiful life. And you will be content. And filled with joy. It will be a good life. Dare we say a happy life?
The six astronauts who are circling the earth in a spaceship in Samantha Harvey’s novel, Orbital, have spent their lives wanting to get to space. And now they are orbiting earth 16 times a day and stunned by its beauty. But their situation involves facing so many limitations and restrictions and potential dangers. Yet they come to this awareness: “At some point in their stay in orbit there comes for each of them a powerful desire that sets in — a desire never to leave. A sudden ambushing by happiness. They find it everywhere, this happiness, springing forth from the blandest places . . . Everything that speaks of being in space — which is everything — ambushes them with happiness. . .” [pp. 17-18]
Maybe when we are doing what we love, what we care about, maybe then we are happy. Not buying the latest thing that pops up in the ad on our social media feed.
Prayer: In these calm and quiet days of Lent, may we pay attention to our call to serve. May we be aware of the needs of others. May we seek opportunities to love others by our deeds. And so find our way to our happy place. Amen.
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Devotion prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL
The devotions this Lenten season will be based on the novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024. It is a beautifully written story about the experience of a group of people orbiting the Earth in a spaceship. They see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24 hour period. The book is a reflection on the experience of living together and appreciating planet Earth in a new way.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 