God just wants me to be happy, right? | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: God just wants me to be happy, right? | Previous Challenge Entry
By sheri stafford
09/07/07
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES

As I sat on the couch next to him I was amazed that three years earlier we were in the middle of divorce. A lot had happened up to this point and here we were in “The Den” of our church mentoring a struggling couple. I love the atmosphere of “The Den”, a quite room used for nursing mothers and moms that have had to drag that loud child out of the service just after they had gotten that hundredth look from fellow worshipers. It’s a cozy room with modern furniture, great lamps with an earthy color shade, walls in warm creamy orange tones that just make you breathe deeply when you walk in, and a TV in a dark wooden armoire to watch our pastor pull no punches.

After a heart wrenching and emotionally exhausting five years of back and forth between my husband, Wes, and I, we decided it’s time to call it quits. Yep, we were becoming a statistic. A Christian couple that believed in God’s word and took it to heart, that was us and we had given up settling on that lie everyone tells you that God just wants you to be happy. If you marriage isn’t happy they say, do what you need to do to be happy. Divorce was our solution to lasting happiness.

The memory of our junk over those five years put a smile on my face. I had just reminded Wes on our drive to meet this couple it’s been three years since we figured out this life isn’t about us.

I reminisced in the car about the sermon Chip, our pastor, preached that Wednesday night a few years ago. I felt like I had been thumped in the head when I heard him say, “God doesn’t care about your happiness…”

What? Oh yes HE does!

I felt it again. THUMP! I remember looking around the auditorium of about 600 people and wondering if I was the only one getting thumped tonight.

Chip stepped away from the podium leaning toward us and clapped his hands saying, “Hear me church! God does not care about your happiness…He cares about your Holiness.”

Holiness. That got my attention.

“This life is not about you, it’s about Him” he continued “And when you are Holy as He is Holy you are most satisfied in this life.”

My brain was hurting I couldn’t think. This Holiness, Happiness thing had me reeling. Scripture tells us to be holy as he is holy. I remember reading that somewhere in the Bible.

I didn’t know what to do, where to begin. How on earth could God fix this mess I found myself in with my marriage? So much had happened… maybe too much.

Instead of a thump, now I heard a voice. A voice I know so well. Oh I love that voice. It had been a very long time since I heard it and it was like a warm liquid being poured over me. “Seek to be Holy” it whispered.

I couldn’t wait to get out of the building and in the quite of my room to seek to be Holy. I knew that was my starting point, my place to begin.

Back in the cozy Den, Wes looked over at me as he was talking to our couple and smiled. I just had to let this couple know that we were where they are but today Wes and I find ourselves in a great place. We are content, satisfied and happy in our relationship with each our only because we sought individually to be Holy as our God is Holy and let God do what God does best. Be God.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.