The Road to Happiness...

Recently there have been movies from China depicting the war of the three kingdoms - Red Cliff(s) and the like...by the way, those are not based on true story...the events were mixed and matched as the directors pleased...

I just watched one of them last sunday. The title is 见龙卸甲...literally means "taking off one's armor after seeing the dragon"...

Now dragon has different images in western and eastern cultures. Dragon is used in the Bible to depict the devil and thus is not meant for something good in western culture. On the other hand, the Chinese reveres this mythical creature so much and attributes all good characters toward it...

Makes you wonder why I want to write about this huh...?

Let me ask you something... Are you happy?...

With what? You ask...

With yourself, your work, your house, your friends, family, bank account, anything in your life...

Most of us would say, I am happy...

If I had a better job...
If I had a better house...
If I had a better look...(somebody is having her hair permed while I am writing this entry)...
If I had a bank account that could help me get anything I want...
If I married a gorgeous guy or a hot girl...
If I was well connected...
If I was smarter...
If...and the list goes on...

The point is...most of us would define happiness in getting what we want...and most probably that "thing" is not under our possession right now...

Ads on televisions, newspapers, magazines and billboards try to "teach" us on "How to be happy"...

Movies, dramas, actors and actresses as well as top business people are our "models of success"...

And so, we aspire to be "there" with them...

I still remember one of my MBA professors was telling our class that he loved the feeling of first time driving his Mercedes. He said, "Finally, I am there..."

Sigh...

By all these definitions...I am most definitely not there...

It feels strange to know what "ambition" could do to one's life. At one point of time it is like a pack of shepherd dogs circling their master, faithfully serving him and do his bidding. At another point of time however, that same pack of dogs could gradually turn into ravaging wolves...chasing their owner to devour him...

And indeed, there was a time when I was chased by those wolves... I was fed up, tired and hopeless, until I almost break my resolution of keep on following the road (read my entry on Yosemite...Oct 1st 2008). I did consider of veering off and drive straight to the chasm, just to get those wolves off my back...I did not do it just because somebody told me that I must "know where I am going" first before committing that kind of suicide mission...

Oh...to add more to the complexity...here is the fun part...

I am also wondering...
How would I know that I am going to be happy when I am "there"?
How would I know that I am going to be happy when I have fulfilled all the "If" list above?
How would I know that I am going to be happy when I get what I want?
The reason is because most people would find a "new there" once they reach there...

There was this supposedly "wise man" who was determined to achieve happiness by filling himself up with all kinds of pleasures known to man...Oh yes, he was a king too and he had all the capabilities to do just that...

By the way, he ended up saying "Vanity of vanities. All is vanity...Everything under the sun is vanity"

Sigh...

I wonder why I should be alive until now...If what the Bible says about heaven is true, why on earth are we doing here? Why do we not all just die and go to heaven? Why keep on living on earth? (of course this is assuming that we would go to heaven after we die...)

I find that I am still alive because when Master Designer breathed life into the first humans on the sixth day, He did that for a purpose and that is "life on earth". If "life" is meant to only be in heaven...why would He bother to create it on earth? Moreover, He was pleased with His designs and implementations afterward and calling them as "it was very good". Which means my presence on earth completes His design...His plan...on earth... Who am I then to say that life on earth is a waste of time?

Speaking about "Plan", how do I know that I am following the Designer's plan? How do I know that I am not missing out of the good things of life? Only the Master Designer Himself has the answers to these questions...and so went I to Him...

Man: Master Designer?
Master Designer: Yes...
M: Thank You.
MD: For?
M: For assuring me that I am the culmination of Your masterpiece...
MD: Don't mention it...
M: That I complete Your master plan...
MD: That's alright...
M: So...why?
MD: Why what?
M: Why making me as who I am? What is it that You are trying to do?
MD: Why do you ask?
M: Because life is so complex. Because I am afraid of missing out of what I am supposed to do. I do not wish to find out in the end that I had stepped over gold mines without realizing it...
MD: Why do you think life is complex? Why are you afraid of missing out?
M: Because I want to be happy...Because I do not want to waste my time wandering around...not knowing what to do...
MD: A little child does not think that life is complex...and he lives - or, borrowing your term "wanders" - happily...for your information...
M: But that child has his father to take care of him...
MD: Good! Now you are learning something...
M: Huh?
MD: ...

A good father would never allow his child to miss his love...
A loving father would never allow his child to miss his care...
A caring father would never allow his child to "miss out"...
Even when the child does not understand him...he will still do his best to ensure that his child never misses any good thing in his life...

How much more the Master Designer is...

Being afraid of missing out is like accusing Him of hiding the good things of life from us...

Just like what the first humans thought when He forbade them from eating the fruit of knowledge...

Am I to fall under the same scheme that satan had used to rob them from the happiness that the Garden Owner had planned for them?

Shame on me...

There was another wise man who thought that Master Creator was not playing fair with him. He accused Him of attacking him without a cause...

His name was 约伯.

He used his own wisdom as an armor to reason with the Master...only to find out that he had to take it off in the presence of His Majesty...(约伯42:1-6)

Shame on me...was his cry of surrender...

And so...I take off my armor too and surrender...

I suppose...this is indeed...the road...to Happiness...

Thank you...babi...

Snippets of Love 3

TWO TRUSTING JESUS
by Mark Heard.
Oboe and English horn: John Yoakum

Two trusting Jesus
There begins the story
Two separate pathways
Leading to glory
With God's Son
One and one
Two eternal lives begun
Two trusting Jesus
Are two within His care

Two trusting Jesus
Kneeling now together
Two separate prayers
They're now one prayer together
In God's Son
Two are one
Let the Master's will be done
Two trusting Jesus
Are one within His care