Happiness and Believing Jesus

A passer-by encounters a man under a lamp post on a dark night. He appears to be looking for something. He stares intently at the ground as he walks around, scuffing his feet on the sidewalk as if trying to kick something loose so he can see it. The passer-by guesses that the man is in some distress and approaches to ask if she can help. "Yes," he says, "As I was walking along, I was playing with my house key in my hand - flipping it and catching it. Then, I flipped it too hard and I missed it when it came down. I heard it land and bounce once. I've been looking for half an hour and can't seem to find it."

The passer-by begins to search, too. She thinks to herself, it's fairly bright here under the street light, it shouldn't be that hard to see the key. She begins asking questions.
"What colour was the key?"
"It was brass."
"Did it have a round or a square head?"
"Round."
"What direction were you walking?"
"I was walking down the hill, toward the variety store over there."
"Were you using your right or left hand?"
The man was perplexed for a moment. "Why do you ask?"
"To learn if, when the key landed, it was more likely to bounce into the street or onto the grass," she explained.
"Right hand."
"About where were you walking when you dropped the key?"
"Over there, across the street by the fire hydrant."
"What!" exclaimed the woman. "You dropped it over there by the hydrant, but you're looking for it here under the lamp post?"
"Yes," he replied. "The light was a lot better on this side of the street.

I don't know who originated that story, but I've heard it several times. I've heard it told as a joke. And I've heard it told as an example of how many people try to solve their problems. (They look for answers in the wrong places.) On the surface, it qualifies as silly, but strangely enough, some people do something like this in their spiritual lives. They have a sense of what's wrong and a sense of how to correct it, but they insist on looking for the answer somewhere else.

Like the man looking for his key in the place where the lighting was best instead of where he had dropped it, they try to find happiness in material things instead of in the One who is the very source of happiness. On one occasion, Jesus challenged his disciple Thomas with these words: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (See John 20:29 NIV) Thomas had refused to believe that Jesus was resurrected until he had seen him with his eyes. Jesus pointed out that Thomas was able to believe because he relied on his senses. Then he proclaimed a blessing on all those who would believe Him without having seen him with their literal physical eyes.

Today, we fall into the category of those who believe without seeing. Some people I know have had a vision of Jesus, but no one has seen Him in the flesh the way his disciples did. The blessing of God and its attendant emotion of happiness follows belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a matter of accepting as true what we learn about Him and His life in the Bible. We'll discover that He is the Son of God, that He came expressly to seek out those who acknowledged themselves to be sinners and save them, that He died a horrific and shameful death in the place of each one who believed He was who He said He was.

Then demonstrating God's acceptance of what He had done on the cross, He came out of the tomb three days later, giving His followers hope that they, too, would follow Him through death into eternal life in the presence of God.

The Bible does not pretend that human suffering does not exist or that it is insignificant or meaningless. The kind of death Jesus died proves that. But believing in Him changes our perspective. It allows us to life our eyes from our physical circumstances and to focus on our spiritual reality. Jesus set the example. He was the One "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

And so we follow Him, taking our place among those who are blessed because, though we have not seen Him, yet we believe.

Happy people believe in Jesus

Ron Hughes
© November 2007