Sermon on the Mount

Every person is doing the best they can do to find happiness in this life. The jobs we choose, the relationships we pursue, the things we fill our time with, are all chosen because we believe they will deliver to us a good and happy life. That is the founding vision of our country, that we would be a place that leaves people free in the pursuit of happiness.... 

Why then, is happiness so rare? So elusive? Why does it seem that the moment we experience joy we can so easily lose it? 

All this, and more, is what Jesus is addressing in the Sermon on the Mount. He is critiquing and rejecting our self-chosen paths to happiness, and offering us another. If we are honest, the path He is offering makes absolutely no sense. No one would choose this path.

Happiness is abandoning our anger? Happiness is in a life of generosity and selflessness? Happiness is cultivating a life of love for people who have harmed you?  

For Jesus, happiness comes along when we change our mind, turn from the direction we are going, and enter His Kingdom. And His Kingdom has values we do not understand, and are not included in what we think will create a good and happy life for us. 

Maybe that is why happiness is elusive. We are on the wrong path. Jesus offers a new path...and its our choice whether or not to choose it.