The One-Sentence Definition of Happiness
- Message Excerpt by
- Topics: Joy, Christian Hedonism
Audio Transcript
Here’s what Christian Hedonism says, I can give it to you in one sentence: God is most glorified in you, when you are most satisfied in him.
God is most glorified in you, when you are most satisfied in him.
That’s the shortest summary of Christian Hedonism we have. If it’s true, there is no final conflict between your highest exhilaration and God’s highest self-glorification. None. No tension, no conflict, if that’s true. In fact, not only is there no conflict between your happiness and God’s glory, but further, his glory shines brightly the more happy you are, if your happiness is in him.
Since God is the source of greatest happiness, since God is the greatest treasure in the world, since God is in his glory the most satisfying gift he could give us, when he exalts himself, sustains his glory, spreads it in the world for our praise, he is loving us. He is kind to us. He is merciful to us, giving us what will make us most deeply and most permanently happy.
God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue. If you try to exalt yourself, you’re not loving anybody. Why? Because you’re distracting them from what will make them happy — God. You won’t make them happy. You’re quite unsatisfactory. God will make them happy.
“God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue.”
If you say, “Look at me, look at me, look at me,” you distract them from what will save them, give them life, and give them joy. But if God exalts himself, he’s not distracting you, he’s loving you. “Come to me, come to me, I’m everything you’ve ever wanted, come to me, be satisfied in me, enjoy me, treasure me.” If you say that, you’re an egomaniac. If God says it, he’s love.
That’s the answer to Brad Pitt. That’s the answer to Oprah Winfrey. That’s the answer to the early C.S. Lewis, Eric Reece, Michael Prowse, and anybody that you’ve ever met who stumbles over God’s self-exaltation.
God is most glorified in you, when you are most satisfied in him. God’s design to pursue his glory in the world turns out to be an act of love, and your duty to glorify him turns out to be the pursuit of your joy.
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