Do you have a happy place? For me, I’m happiest curled up on the couch with a good book, hiking through a beautiful mountain meadow, or anywhere I can be with Ana. It is in those places I feel truly happy, content with my life.
Unfortunately, none of us get to spend enough time in our happy places. Life is so busy, so filled with demands on our time, there is little time to steal away, to go where we feel content and happy.
Often we find ourselves in circumstances or places not of our choosing, about as far as we can get from our happy place. It might be a job we hate, a marriage that’s gone sour, or something else entirely. We feel desperate, longing for a way out, for just a few precious moments in that happy place where we feel at peace.
The Apostle Paul often found himself in difficult situations, far from any place you and I would call happy. In 2 Corinthians 11 he details just a little of what he’d gone through. He says, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.” (vs. 24-26).
Persecuted, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, “in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from…fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers”, Paul seemingly had every reason to be unhappy. Yet, instead, he confidently declares, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” (Philippians 4:12 NIV). How could he say this? What was this secret he’d found?
I think Paul had discovered the same thing Abraham had found long before him, that “the happiest place on earth for him was the place where God would have him to be.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 126). You see what Abraham knew and what Paul learned was our happy place is not really a place, it is a Person, it is Jesus. When we are with Jesus we can be the happiest people on earth, no matter what our circumstances may be.
This coming week, when you feel the pressure building and you long to escape to your happy place, remember that place is right where you are, if you’re where Jesus wants you to be. Keep holding onto His hand and you’ll soon discover when you’re walking with Jesus every place you go is a Happy Place.