Looking In All The Wrong Places

Have we ever heard someone say when they finally found an item they lost, “Wouldn’t you know, it was in the last place I looked?” Someone once said that if it had been in the first place they looked, they wouldn’t have looked in any other place, so that every time an item is found it is always in the last place someone looks.

Happiness is like that. People are looking in all the wrong places, and as a result, most people never find it. If they were really wise, they would look where it could be found "first" and then live life with the greatest degree of enjoyment (Matthew 6:33). It’s like the man who set out to search the world for the best ox that could be found in all the earth. He traversed the countryside, looking wherever anyone bragged about how great his ox was. It was only when he became old and had wasted his fortune in his quest to find the best ox that he realized he had been riding him all along.

We often hear folks say, “If only I could move and start afresh, I could be happy” or “If I had a new house, car, the right job, or could marry the right person, I could then experience true happiness.” But folks, happiness is not found in places or things (Luke 12:15). It is not even found in accomplishments. The possession and use of material things have a momentary satisfaction that does not last (Ecclesiastes 5:13-16). If we labor and take pride in building, the satisfaction comes from the labor itself or in producing something that makes us feel good — but such things give no inner peace, no tranquility or contentment (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11).

Jesus once offered a Samaritan woman water. If she drank of this water, she would never thirst again — she would be spiritually satisfied (John 4:10-13). No matter if we are rich or poor, as followers of Christ, we should be the happiest people in the world because we have learned to be content in all circumstances (Philippians 4:10-15). We are happy, because we know who we are and where we are going (John 14:1-3; Colossians 1:3-5; 1 Peter 1:3-4). We have found acceptance and love and have experienced forgiveness and reconciliation (Acts 2:38; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Is there anything more important in life?

Beloved, where do we think happiness is to be found? Is it in the making of more money and having more things? — or perhaps it is found in the least likely place most people would look — like on a mantle or coffee table — in a book called “The Bible.”

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets