Warning: Contents May Cause Happiness

My friend, preaching colleague, and fellow Hoosier, Max Dawson, is a self proclaimed “car guy” and often uses car stories to illustrate moral and spiritual truth.

A few months ago Max posted this piece about happiness on his blog “Pontiacs, Points, and Proverbs.”

We offer it without comment.

Enjoy.

“Warning: Contents May Cause Happiness”

That’s how it read on the back of the Amazon Prime truck.

Lee and I were driving north out of Ventura, California last week when we saw it. It wasn’t the first time we have seen an Amazon truck with that message. I suppose there are some people who think you can order happiness on Amazon. Not that they could order a product called “happiness,” but that they could order any thing and it would make them happy

The things that produce happiness are not things.

We have lots of things, don’t we? I have lots of things. But none produce happiness.

You don’t have to know me well to know that I am a car guy. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I write about some of my cars here. A while back, when I purchased my last car, Lee asked me, “Are you happy?” I told her that cars don’t make me happy. I further told her that I am glad to have the car, but it does not make me happy. I have been around long enough to know that there is nothing I can purchase or possess that will produce happiness.

At this point in my life, I am doing something that I have wanted to do since I was a young man. I always wanted to build something like a pole barn or garage where I could mess with old cars. That way, if I saw an old car I liked, I could drag it home and have fun tinkering with it. That’s one of the things I do, even though I don’t have much tinkering time

But none of the old cars I own produce happiness. They just can’t. A couple of my old cars are nice cars. But whether they are nice or ragged out, they are not a source of happiness.

I trust that you have learned that same lesson. Things don’t produce happiness. I think one of the most miserable people on the planet might be the person who thinks it is wrong for a follower of Jesus to possess anything nice–whether it be a big house, a nice car, or even a boat or a motorhome. He thinks it is wrong, yet in secret envy, he thinks that if he had those things, he would be happy! He may condemn the other man and call him a “materialist,” insisting that he is only interested in material pursuits. Yet he is truly the materialist because he secretly believes material things would make him happy.

Here are some sources of happiness for me. I hope these are your sources too.

Family: “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them…” (Psalm 127:4-5). Family may not always produce happiness, but it certainly has the potential to do so.

Work: “When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you” (Psalm 128:2). Would you agree that work can produce a limited kind of happiness?

God: “Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!” (Psalm 14:15). Having a right relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of joy, peace, contentment and happiness in life.

What are some things in your life that make you happy?