(upbeat music) - Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor John Piper. Today we have a question from a listener named Chase. Hello Pastor John, and thank you for taking my question. According to Arthur C. Brooks, the president of a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., 88% of our happiness is determined by two factors.

Events that occurred in our recent past, 40%, and genetics, 48%. That leaves around 12% left to our day-by-day control, which can be used to pursue four basic things. Faith, family, community, and work. The four surest ways to happiness, he says. I'm curious how the idea of Christian hedonism either compliments or contradicts this research on happiness, the statistical breakdown, and where happiness is found to begin with.

- Two comments. First, a comment about the notion that 88% of our happiness is determined, and 12% is left to our day-by-day control. Christians don't think that way. And I'm leaving aside the whole issue that God controls it all. Not just our past, but the 100%. I'm not even talking about that.

The reason we don't think that way is that the last 12% of freedom that we have to adjust, if that were true, the Christian says, "With this 12%, "or with the tiny fraction of this 12%, "I can embrace the gospel of Jesus, "which has three stunning effects "regarding that 88% of my past "that you say is unchangeably determining of my happiness." Here are the three effects.

Number one, through the gospel of Jesus, all my past sins are forgiven, and suddenly the whole load of guilt that was crushing me from that 88% past is gone. Number two, through the gospel of Jesus, we are not only forgiven, but made forgiving, which means that the whole load of bitterness and anger that made our whole life toxic and caused us to seethe about our past is taken away.

Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. So we lay it down, and the crushing weight of past wrongs against us is lifted. And so that 88% is dramatically changed. And number three, through the gospel of Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit who begins to transform our hearts and minds, which the public policy polls said were determined by the past.

In other words, these kinds of statistics and polls and predictions are naturalistic, God-less. They don't reckon with the supernatural. They don't reckon with God or Jesus or the massive effects of the death and resurrection of Christ or the presence of the Holy Spirit. So that's my first comment. The other one is that Brooke's second claim could be true if he were speaking and thinking in a Christian way, with Christian categories, not just a naturalistic one.

Here's what he says. He says, "Choosing to pursue four basic things, faith, family, community, and work, is the surest way to happiness." Hmm. So here's the Christian content that would make that statement true. One, pursuing faith means, yes, that would get you happiness if faith means being satisfied in all that God is for us in Christ.

If that's what he means by pursuing faith, that would do it. Number two, he says, "Pursuing family is the path to happiness." I say, yes, if he means with a happy submission to God's will as to whether we will ever have a family beyond our parents, whether we'll ever be married, whether we'll ever have kids.

And if he means pursuing the family we do have with conviction that there is a special joy to be found in seeking our joy in the joy of those God has put in our family. Yeah, that's true. That is the path to happiness. But if we put our hope for happiness in the family we hope we'll be, that's almost a sure path to disillusionment.

Number three, pursuing community is the path to happiness. Well, yes, if pursuing community means getting outside ourselves and for the glory of God in reliance upon the grace of God, discovering in community it is more blessed to give than to receive. And fourth, he says pursuing work is the path to happiness.

And I say, yes, if we realize that according to Genesis 1, God made us in his image and sent us out to display his glory by being sub creators and sub managers as we work the world. And if we realize that according to Ephesians 2.10, Jesus saved us by grace and created us for good works, that is to do good in our vocation and in every other way as a fruit and overflow of our newness in Christ.

So if Brooks were willing to modify his statistical determinism and his fourfold path to happiness in these ways, I would give three cheers. Amen. Thank you for addressing this story, Pastor John. And thank you for listening and making the podcast a part of your day and commute. It's an honor to tag along with you as part of your day.

And three times a week we publish and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive. Even reach us by email with a question you may be facing about how we find joy. Like this very good question today. You can do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Well, is God a megalomaniac? Someone consumed with his own power? It's a question we get a lot. And this time it comes from a 15 year old who is wrestling with this very question. He struggles and he thinks that God's expectation that we find our greatest happiness in worshiping him to be coercive and mean, manipulative, and even wrong.

So how does John Piper respond? We'll find out when we return on Wednesday, Lord willing. I am your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)