How Much of My Happiness Is Settled By Factors Outside My Immediate Control?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:00:06.220 | with longtime author and pastor John Piper.
00:00:09.720 | Today we have a question from a listener named Chase.
00:00:12.480 | Hello Pastor John, and thank you for taking my question.
00:00:15.000 | According to Arthur C. Brooks,
00:00:16.700 | the president of a public policy think tank
00:00:19.160 | in Washington, D.C.,
00:00:21.440 | 88% of our happiness is determined by two factors.
00:00:26.360 | Events that occurred in our recent past, 40%,
00:00:30.200 | and genetics, 48%.
00:00:33.220 | That leaves around 12% left to our day-by-day control,
00:00:37.600 | which can be used to pursue four basic things.
00:00:41.120 | Faith, family, community, and work.
00:00:44.840 | The four surest ways to happiness, he says.
00:00:47.580 | I'm curious how the idea of Christian hedonism
00:00:50.640 | either compliments or contradicts
00:00:52.460 | this research on happiness,
00:00:54.420 | the statistical breakdown, and where happiness
00:00:57.040 | is found to begin with.
00:00:58.920 | - Two comments.
00:01:00.160 | First, a comment about the notion that 88%
00:01:03.920 | of our happiness is determined,
00:01:06.400 | and 12% is left to our day-by-day control.
00:01:11.400 | Christians don't think that way.
00:01:16.560 | And I'm leaving aside the whole issue
00:01:23.600 | that God controls it all.
00:01:25.840 | Not just our past, but the 100%.
00:01:32.120 | I'm not even talking about that.
00:01:34.080 | The reason we don't think that way
00:01:37.360 | is that the last 12% of freedom that we have to adjust,
00:01:42.140 | if that were true,
00:01:43.520 | the Christian says, "With this 12%,
00:01:48.240 | "or with the tiny fraction of this 12%,
00:01:51.320 | "I can embrace the gospel of Jesus,
00:01:56.020 | "which has three stunning effects
00:01:59.640 | "regarding that 88% of my past
00:02:03.400 | "that you say is unchangeably determining of my happiness."
00:02:08.400 | Here are the three effects.
00:02:09.980 | Number one, through the gospel of Jesus,
00:02:14.040 | all my past sins are forgiven,
00:02:18.120 | and suddenly the whole load of guilt
00:02:22.240 | that was crushing me from that 88% past is gone.
00:02:27.240 | Number two, through the gospel of Jesus,
00:02:32.240 | we are not only forgiven, but made forgiving,
00:02:37.240 | which means that the whole load of bitterness and anger
00:02:42.240 | that made our whole life toxic
00:02:47.400 | and caused us to seethe about our past is taken away.
00:02:52.400 | Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
00:02:56.480 | So we lay it down,
00:02:58.160 | and the crushing weight of past wrongs against us is lifted.
00:03:03.160 | And so that 88% is dramatically changed.
00:03:10.160 | And number three, through the gospel of Jesus,
00:03:13.480 | we are given the Holy Spirit
00:03:15.760 | who begins to transform our hearts and minds,
00:03:20.760 | which the public policy polls said
00:03:25.640 | were determined by the past.
00:03:28.600 | In other words, these kinds of statistics
00:03:31.680 | and polls and predictions are naturalistic, God-less.
00:03:36.680 | They don't reckon with the supernatural.
00:03:41.520 | They don't reckon with God or Jesus
00:03:44.280 | or the massive effects of the death
00:03:46.200 | and resurrection of Christ
00:03:48.160 | or the presence of the Holy Spirit.
00:03:51.480 | So that's my first comment.
00:03:53.400 | The other one is that Brooke's second claim could be true
00:03:58.400 | if he were speaking and thinking in a Christian way,
00:04:03.080 | with Christian categories, not just a naturalistic one.
00:04:06.680 | Here's what he says.
00:04:08.040 | He says, "Choosing to pursue four basic things,
00:04:11.760 | faith, family, community, and work,
00:04:14.760 | is the surest way to happiness."
00:04:18.360 | Hmm.
00:04:20.520 | So here's the Christian content
00:04:23.960 | that would make that statement true.
00:04:27.960 | One, pursuing faith means,
00:04:32.200 | yes, that would get you happiness
00:04:36.240 | if faith means being satisfied
00:04:39.840 | in all that God is for us in Christ.
00:04:44.280 | If that's what he means by pursuing faith,
00:04:47.840 | that would do it.
00:04:49.400 | Number two, he says,
00:04:51.360 | "Pursuing family is the path to happiness."
00:04:54.240 | I say, yes, if he means with a happy submission
00:04:59.240 | to God's will as to whether we will ever have a family
00:05:06.000 | beyond our parents, whether we'll ever be married,
00:05:09.140 | whether we'll ever have kids.
00:05:11.120 | And if he means pursuing the family we do have
00:05:16.120 | with conviction that there is a special joy to be found
00:05:21.440 | in seeking our joy in the joy
00:05:25.460 | of those God has put in our family.
00:05:27.620 | Yeah, that's true.
00:05:28.720 | That is the path to happiness.
00:05:31.840 | But if we put our hope for happiness
00:05:36.680 | in the family we hope we'll be,
00:05:40.140 | that's almost a sure path to disillusionment.
00:05:43.660 | Number three, pursuing community is the path to happiness.
00:05:48.280 | Well, yes, if pursuing community means
00:05:52.860 | getting outside ourselves and for the glory of God
00:05:56.780 | in reliance upon the grace of God,
00:05:59.700 | discovering in community it is more blessed
00:06:03.180 | to give than to receive.
00:06:05.380 | And fourth, he says pursuing work is the path to happiness.
00:06:10.380 | And I say, yes, if we realize that according to Genesis 1,
00:06:17.480 | God made us in his image and sent us out
00:06:21.480 | to display his glory by being sub creators
00:06:24.720 | and sub managers as we work the world.
00:06:29.400 | And if we realize that according to Ephesians 2.10,
00:06:32.980 | Jesus saved us by grace and created us for good works,
00:06:37.980 | that is to do good in our vocation and in every other way
00:06:43.060 | as a fruit and overflow of our newness in Christ.
00:06:47.140 | So if Brooks were willing to modify
00:06:50.940 | his statistical determinism
00:06:53.980 | and his fourfold path to happiness in these ways,
00:06:57.100 | I would give three cheers.
00:06:59.460 | Amen.
00:07:00.460 | Thank you for addressing this story, Pastor John.
00:07:02.340 | And thank you for listening and making the podcast
00:07:04.740 | a part of your day and commute.
00:07:05.980 | It's an honor to tag along with you as part of your day.
00:07:08.420 | And three times a week we publish
00:07:09.860 | and you can subscribe to our audio feeds
00:07:11.500 | and search our past episodes in our archive.
00:07:13.420 | Even reach us by email with a question you may be facing
00:07:15.500 | about how we find joy.
00:07:17.360 | Like this very good question today.
00:07:19.240 | You can do all that through our online home
00:07:20.580 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:07:24.480 | Well, is God a megalomaniac?
00:07:30.580 | Someone consumed with his own power?
00:07:33.300 | It's a question we get a lot.
00:07:34.460 | And this time it comes from a 15 year old
00:07:36.900 | who is wrestling with this very question.
00:07:39.020 | He struggles and he thinks that God's expectation
00:07:41.980 | that we find our greatest happiness in worshiping him
00:07:45.260 | to be coercive and mean, manipulative, and even wrong.
00:07:50.260 | So how does John Piper respond?
00:07:52.380 | We'll find out when we return on Wednesday, Lord willing.
00:07:56.260 | I am your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.
00:07:59.100 | (upbeat music)
00:08:01.680 | (upbeat music)
00:08:04.260 | [BLANK_AUDIO]