The Pursuit of Happiness

According to the Declaration of Independence, our fundamental, inalienable rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I want to focus on that last one: the pursuit of happiness. Studies have shown that we get much more joy and satisfaction out of the journey than the destination. This is because we're not very good at predicting the final outcome. We imagine that if we can just get married or get all of our kids to graduate high school, or when we get our PHd, or when we can finally buy that jet ski, then our life will be fundamentally different. All of our problems, all of the things that give us grief will simply evaporate in the blinding brilliance of our never ending happiness. This is, of course, nonsense. Achieving professional or personal goals undoubtedly makes us happy but it doesn't automatically vanquish all of those little things that tend to make us miserable. That's why the pursuit of happiness is much more powerful than the happiness we imagine we'll find in the end. If we have a goal that we are working towards, then we can put up with all of those little annoying things, all the bumps in the road and the pebbles that get into our shoes, because we're headed in the right direction and we believe that when we get to the end of the road all of our problems will be over. That tends not to be the case but journeying toward the goal makes our life meaningful and fulfilling and happy. We can be happy in the pursuit of happiness, maybe not happy in the unrealistic way we imagine for ourselves at the end of our journey, but happy in a way that is nonetheless real and not imaginary. The beautiful thing about this is that God gave us the ultimate pursuit of happiness, the ultimate journey. We exist that we might have joy and we are here on this Earth to become like God. These two things go together. The fact that it is impossible to achieve our ultimate purpose in this life, the fact that it is impossible to actually reach the final destination is not a bug in the system, it's a feature. If the journey is where we get true meaning and joy and fulfillment, then God has given us the ultimate journey. The path to perfection doesn't end in this life because God wants us to have a goal to strive towards for the entirety of our lives. Because working towards a goal is what gives life meaning and purpose. God has given us life, He has given us the liberty and freedom to make our choices, and He has given us the pursuit of happiness, the ultimate, never ending journey, and no one and nothing, not even God Himself, will take these three inalienable rights from us.