Happy Chinese New Year! What does it mean to be happy? It is so easy to speak greetings without thinking about what it means to be truly happy. Most of the New Years’ celebrations I have experienced ironically have been anything but happy. Why is happiness so important? The founding fathers of the United States saw it to be a central drive of human existence that it was included as a goal for its citizens: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The truth of the matter is we as humans desire to be in a state of happiness or blessedness. In fact, New Year is a time of year which causes us to reflect on the past, our eternity and with the goal of looking towards our future dreams and aspirations.
Blessed is a felicitous or fortunate state, like happiness, and it’s strongly captured in the Lord’s description of the blessed ones (Mt 5:3-12). The Psalmist proclaims happy or blessed are the people whose God is the LORD (Ps 144:15). When we look to things outside of our Creator the only natural conclusion is the experience of being happy or blessed will vary or be momentary. The reason for this is the fact that God is the source of provision, time and what is to come in the future. But how do we cultivate this happiness in our life? The blessedness and happiness of a person is one who advances in understanding and in the ways of God from his Word. As the Psalmist describes, it is like a tree by the streams of water which yields fruit in season (Ps 1:1-3).
In days gone past people’s New Year celebrations would celebrate the incoming harvest. This reminded people of the reality that provision has a dependant source from rains to produce crops. Unfortunately, we have supermarkets and just think provision comes from a click and collect. The simple agricultural life teaches a basic biblical lesson about dependence on God for rain to receive the deeply hoped for harvest provision.
This analogy mirrors the biblical imagery of our human need for happiness and the eternal source of where we are to find it. True Happiness can only be found in Jesus Christ and not the temporal experiences of happiness which come and go like the wind or drought. As we celebrate the New Year let’s embrace our God as our true source of happiness and share it with others.
農曆新年快樂! 什麼才是真正的快樂？我們很慣易於在不思考其含義的情况下說出此祝福語，但真正的快樂到底意味着什麼呢？我所經驗過的大多數新年慶祝活動，諷刺的是恰恰遠非快樂。為什麼快樂如此重要？美國的開國元老勛臣認為，追求幸福是人類存在的核心動力，因此將“生命、自由和追求幸福”納入為其公民的追求目標之一。事實上，我們作為人類渴望處於快樂或幸福的狀態。其實，新年是一個讓我們反思過去、思考永恒, 並且以展望未來的夢想和願望為目標的時刻。
“有福” 如一種滿足的快樂一樣的幸福或幸運的狀態，這在主對有福人的描述中（馬太福音5:3-12）強烈地呈現了這點。另詩人也宣告，那些以耶和華為神的百姓是有福的（詩篇144:15）。當我們將目光投向創造主以外的事物時，唯一導出自然的結論是，所經驗得的幸福或祝福是變化無常或短暫的。其原因在予神是那供給、時間以及未來一切的源頭。那麼，我們如何在日常生活中培養這種幸福？一個人的祝福和幸福來自於他在理解神的話語和行走神的道路上不斷進步。正如詩篇中的詩人所描述的，像一棵栽在溪水旁的樹，按時候結果子（詩篇 1:1-3）。過去，人們在新年慶祝活動中會慶祝即將到來的豐收。這提醒人們，供應的來源全依賴於降下的雨水來滋養農作物生長。不幸的是，我們現在有超市，只需點擊和取貨。簡單的農業生活教導我們一個基本的聖經教訓，那就是依賴神赐予的雨水，以獲得我們们深切期盼的豐收供應。
這個比擬與聖經中關於我們人類對幸福的需求以及我們應當尋找幸福的永恒源頭的意景相呼應。真正的幸福只能在耶穌基督裡找到，而不是在那些短暫的幸福能體驗，因這些如風或乾旱一樣忽來又匆去。當我們慶祝新年時，讓我們擁抱緊連於神，作為我們真正的幸福源泉，並與他人分享這種幸福。
