Pursuit of Happiness - Part 1

So here we go.
Been making a list for the last couple of days of things that influence our happiness.
Going to go through them in no particular order...

Here is one - CLEAR CONSCIENCE

Nothing seems to steal any chance of happiness than a guilty conscience.
That feeling where you know you have something to feel guilty about.

When I was 8 my parents returned from an overseas trip that lasted some months.
They traveled right around the world including a country called Italy.
From wherever they went they brought home little souvenirs of the journey including money.
As an 8 year old I was fascinated by the 10,000 lira note they showed us. To me I could not understand that it was worth only a few dollars in New Zealand currency. I believed it was worth $10,000. More money than I had ever imagined.
One day I was showing it off to some kids and ended up wrestling with it...you can imagine what happens next!
Yes, we ripped it!!!
I was so upset. I thought I had ripped and destroyed $10,000 dollars.
So I hid the money and tried to pretend it never happened.

That night I could not sleep. My mum kept asking me what was wrong, but I could not bring myself to tell her.
In fact many years went by before I did anything about my crime.
I lived with this horrible feeling in my gut for so long. Before I knew it was called a conscience.
Eventually I confessed and found out how silly I had been.
But I learnt a valuable lesson...to listen to my
conscience and not to pretend it is not there. Otherwise I just hurt myself.

Check out some scriptures on this thing...

Hebrews 10:22 niv
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 9:14 niv
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Here is some great advice...

Acts 3:19 niv
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

If you have a guilty conscience that is robbing you of happiness...you can do a couple of things.
One, sort it sort. Confess. Restore. Fix. Whatever you can do to make things right.
Two, come to God and let him finish the work to your conscience.

Something to think about...

Locky's Pursuit of Happiness - Series Introduction

There has been a lot of talk recently about this thing called Happiness.

Discussion about what it is and how much you have or don’t have of it. Discussion based around all sorts of belief systems and even agendas.

If you asked the Waterboy—Bobby Boucher (very corny movie) what it is, he would say this…

“Mamma says Happiness is from magic rays of Sunshine that come down when ya feelin blue.”

When I look through dictionaries and other reference material I see the word and their expressed meanings.

But one thing seems to stand out.

No one ever says happiness is a goal that once attended is guaranteed to last without end. Nor do they say that happiness is a right of all adults.

I don’t think that I need to tell you what happy feels like.

You already know.

I bet there have been many moments in your life, where if you thought about it, that you truly felt happy.

Even if it was for a moment...

Maybe it was a birthday? Honeymoon? Buying your first home or first car. Maybe you feel happiness right now reading my thoughts? Or maybe it is something you recognize that you haven’t felt for some time now?

That reality is that life continues on whether we feel in a  state of happiness or not.

The minutes on a clock keep moving forward.

The sun continues its journey across the sky.

This is what I think…

Actually I can’t tell you what I think in one simple thought. I have realized that it will take a series of them to share my ideas on happiness.

So here is my plan to help explain happiness.

I am going to share something on it most days in my blog lockymcneill.blogpsot.com

Can I encourage you to come check it out regularly?

Let’s learn something together.

Let’s find out how to find true happiness when it is there for us.

Never forget that God does have a great plan for yours and my life, and it does include periods of happiness.

There is more to life. A ‘bigger’ way to live!

Something to think about…and to keep coming back for...

Lies + Money

I read this yesterday…

“Two things I ask of you, LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

The Bible | Proverbs 30:7-9 NIV

Stop and read this for a moment.

I mean it.

Because even though this person wrote this prayer, wish, request, whatever you want to call it a long time ago...

I believe we can all relate to it in our world today.

Are you like me and sick of all the lies?
What happened to someone’s ‘word being their bond’?
Why is it seemingly ok to lie if it gets you something you want? Or it ultimately makes you happy?

I have lost track of all the lies I have been told over the last few years.
I can actually handle it sometimes from people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus, but really struggle when my so called brother or sister does it.
Tell it to me straight. I like that. I can respect that.
It is less damaging than the alternative.

What about the 2nd part of this statement?

We are told all the time that money will make us happy.
And you already knew that it doesn’t fix everything.

So please don’t sell your soul just to get some more.

Pretty challenging I know for my simple thought this week...but you are worth it, to share it!

Something to think about…

Remind-er

Yesterday I went for a ride.
That ride led me past a building.
Seeing that building reminded me about something.
Something I had promised to do, but had forgotten.

You and I need reminders in our lives. Otherwise we tend to forget about the potentially important things in life.
Without reminders about God, we can soon find ourselves forgetting about Him even...

You might not agree with me right now because you haven’t forgotten who God is to you.
But trust me in this. You are no different from every other person who has ever lived.
Without ‘God’ reminders in your life, one day you will wake up and you may well have forgotten.

I don’t think God created all the festivals He did like Passover just because He is into religious festivals.
I think He did that for those people because they acted as a reminder. They brought God’s people back to a certain place.
A certain focus.
It reminded them of who God was and what He is like.

You and I now have some other things that help us:

Being with your brothers and sisters as the Church, whether it be on a Sunday or at some sort of small group.

Taking time to pray and meditate on God’s Word.

Sharing in things like communion.

Actually that is a good one!
Jesus said this about this special reminder:
He (Jesus) took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19 NIV

This week, can I encourage you to have some reminders?
Be with God’s people when and where ever you can.
Take time out to pray and read.
Remind yourself again and again of who He is to you.
Remind yourself of what He has called you for.

That way...you will never forget!

Something to think about…

Prepare

My kids start school again for a brand new year tomorrow.
That is not that unusual as many kids around our country are or have already done the same this week.
But what is interesting, is that you can’t just turn up on the first day. You are actually need to prepare first.

For us that has meant spending money and time getting all the required stationary together.
Then my wife spent hours and hours covering books with film to help them go the distance.
I took my oldest to the uniform shop to get some new shirts for his first year of Intermediate School.
The youngest needed a new bag after destroying last years while trying to turn it into a mobile compost bin...that is another story for another time…

With school and life you need to prepare.

When I was in the Boy Scouts they told us again and again that we needed to ‘Be Prepared’.
I love doing sport events like cycle races, again it seems to work best when you prepare for them.

While I am the first to admit that life sometimes throws a curve ball that is hard to prepare for, you can still prepare for those times.

2 Timothy 4:2 says for us to...
...be prepared in season and out of season...

How do you do that?

Well there are lots of ways, but they all come from the same start position.
It all starts from this person called Jesus.
You can prepare for anything this year by making Jesus your foundation. Making Him your rock.
Hope is cool...it is an anchor for many of us through many seasons. But my hope is built on a Jesus foundation, not just on the word itself.

1 Corinthians 2:9 says...
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”
— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

God has prepared for you.
He has taken the time to organize and prepare for your 2012.
How about taking some time to really prepare for your new year?
Build your foundation with Jesus.
Commit to being part of the God’s people, the Church.

That’s what I am doing...why don’t you join me?

Something to think about…