Happiness Gurus: Salvation is at Hand

We do not need statistics from expert researchers and famous professors to tell us that in spite of all our progress and economic well-being, happiness continue to elude many of us. The ordinary person in the street could verify this reality. Notwithstanding, many prominent people have had a conversion of heart by acknowledging that there is more to life than making-money - especially since  banks have been gambling it away, in mind boggling sums. And do not be fooled: lessons have not been learnt!

Now the recently launched “Action for Happiness movement” [http://www.actionforhappiness.org/] with its own web-page has come to our rescue. Their intention is to help us counter the rising tide of excessive individualism. The aim of the group is to request from those who have signed up, a personal commitment to be able to produce “more happiness and less misery”.  How commendable!

It is not insignificant that the people who are behind this project and those who make up its Board are intellectually and materially well-endowed. While there is certainly the need for people to find happiness and to work towards making others happy, one is struck by the very privileged nature of this whole undertaking. 

The call is to make happiness contagious so that it will spread like wildfire! But I do wonder how much this will achieve in countering “the epidemic of lowliness and isolation”. For starters, what we mean by happiness will certainly vary and will be measured differently. The webpage of “Action for Happiness” does have a number of practical tips for inputting things “that matter most”.

Yet some of it, for example, their suggested ten (10) keys to happier living is quite revealing in terms of its middle class ethos and very privileged take on happiness. I wonder if these colleagues know the world of poor people in the UK or have them in mind! I am sure poor people will know about giving, relating, exercising, appreciating, trying out etc. But such knowledge is not necessarily by choice, but as a result of the harsh realities of their existence, mostly caused by an economic system on which the rich thrive. They come to such by the forced realities of their circumstances, largely caused by an economic system that dehumanises people - and not by choice!

It is here that “action for happiness” should do some more work – meaning that happier living may necessitate giving up on higher incomes and our present economic model! Putting well-being on the agenda must be a costly undertaking as we reorient our lives around God’s economy, otherwise we end up bowing down to the obsessive idol of wealth, and happiness becomes another item to be sold. The reality is that almost every store, supermarket and shop offers happiness assuring us that they are working for our happiness - not their shareholders stock price and for enormous profit margin!

Action for happiness? Well there are already lots of tips in the sacred scriptures. Take the teachings and example of Jesus as one model: he offers a counter version of the dominant version, challenging life prioritised by competition, efficiency and survival of the fittest. His choice is simple: an offer between a life dominated by a consumer/market world or one that trusts in God’s faithfulness and takes the Divine (awe, mystery etc) seriously! Indeed, happiness here is a qualitatively different way of seeing our world, our priorities, lifestyles etc. So, “consider the lilies…” is more than a minor off the cuff statement: it is full of possibilities as it is demanding of a radical re-orienting of our lives.

© copyright May 16, 2011

Security, Fear and Easter Hopes

Given the gadgets we entomb ourselves with, our present economic demise, airport queues, political turmoil in the Middle East, and the continuing terror alerts: security certainly captures our imagination. Almost all the ads that bombard us feature a threat to some form of our security/well-being and then offers a product that offers salvation from the threat! Everyone and everything is interested in keeping us safe. At least, this is what we are led to believe.

Security must have also been on high alert, given all the reported claims from Jesus about coming back to life. That will be disastrous for the status quo, hence the attempts to make the tomb secure and to give a sense of having things under control. Control is what we seek today as fears multiply around us. Who will roll the stones of fears away?  How would we ever get out of our economic meltdown, secure more jobs, deal firmly with immigration to the UK, close our borders from sanctuary seekers and be tough on terror?

Easter and resurrection suggest that all our efforts at making the tomb secure and at ‘sealing things’ merely serve to create a greater sense of our own insecurities. In the Easter and post-Easter stories, the Divine breaks through all human attempts to safely contain (Status Quo); to follow from a safe distance (Peter); and to wash our hands from taking responsibility as agents of death (Pilate). There was also that unpredictable earthquake that shattered the security cordon around the tomb, causing some to faint from fright! The women, of course, did manage to maintain consciousness, able to ride the surprises around them, unafraid, and running to (not from) share the good news. Easter meant boldness and freedom for them, not having their lives dictated by the agents of death. Death, of course, is so easy to accept as the norm as it is all around us. It is more difficult to believe that life will triumph over death and good over evil.

Easter affirms that God is not in the business of formulating a strategy for containment, but an adventure of generous abundance. This is the fullness of life project which is at the heart of our life together as Easter communities. Easter declares: that God is creating a new heaven and a new earth (which we desperately need), that love is working overtime and that biodegradability is not the final word. God is still speaking! A new day with new possibilities has dawned and now our part in the story of Easter begins! How are we planning to live and practice an Easter life-style?

© copyright April 18, 2011

Resurrection, Protest and the Good Samaritan

Joining the massive protest march (March 23^rd), the coalition of resistance, has been a highpoint Lenten experience for me. I gave up writing about protesting and took to the streets with the thousands protesting – hopefully making a statement against heartless and some clueless politics (not to mention politicians! I lost track of the number of poignant, creative and stinging placards carried by protestors of all ages on this protest.

As we marched in what I can only describe as a Carnival atmosphere, I wondered if I had my bible on me, what scripture passage would I read and how different that reading would have been. I am sure there will be many texts. The thought crossed my mind, however, as I had only recently come across the practice of what has been referred to as “dislocated exegesis” - the practice of reading scripture in unexpected places, in places that might unsettle the reading you were accustomed to or likely to bring to the text from the comfort of one’s desk or office.

The text that came to mind, as it was easy to remember having heard it so many times (besides preaching on it!) was the story of the Good Samaritan. What did I hear differently, as the very familiar words of this narrative replayed in my ears and my mind on the march?

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho…” The thousands journeying on this march took on this journey in solidarity against inconsiderate economic policies that would affect very vulnerable people. In the eyes of the government and the banking institutions, I suppose we would not be considered “the good protestors” but largely idiots who do not understand the economic mess we are in, who are unable to give up our comfortable lives and people who can only moan and whinge! It must have been mind-blowing to juxtapose “good” alongside “Samaritan”, as it is to do so (in the minds of many) alongside the very diverse group of protestors on that march!

There were many neighbours on this solidarity or coalition march – unlikely ones, but neighbours nevertheless – who may have beeen (or are) victims themselves, but who are certainly on the march for the many victims our economic policies have attacked, battered and left for dead on the roadside. I recall the words of Gustavo Gutierrez: “the neighbour is not the one whom I find in my path, but rather the one in whose path I place myself, the one whom I approach and actively seek.” When this happens it is not only the world that will change, but also our ways of acting in it. This is when protest marches are then translated in concrete policies that change the ways we manage our economic life together.

Participating in the protest march brought alive for me the need to revisit the assailants in the story of the Good Samaritan – who often go unnoticed in the story. I mean those who assault, leave people naked, wounded and bleeding to death at the wayside of history. They would continue to go unnoticed as long as we only go down from Jerusalem to Jericho to treat the wounded with compassion, without it ever dawning upon us that that we are only binding up wounds while nothing changes. Binding up wounds isn't enough; we have got to also ensure that people don't need to be bound up in the first place. More radical steps are necessary in order to get at the root of the problem. This is the task before us which that march brought forcefully back to me. The “coalition of resistance must turn into “coalition of change” that starts with each one of us! After all, in economic terms (to employ its own logic): it is cheaper to eliminate poverty and social ills than to maintain it! We need an alternative system not a bandaged up and redressed one!

copyright March 29, 2011