As I sit here writing, a thought has been working its way through my head for a few hours. It’s more than a thought, really. It’s become a desire.

It’s a desire to purchase something that seems like it would be exciting and new — that seems like it would make me happy. It’s hard to stop thinking about it.

Maybe you can relate.

I thought this thing might make me happy. But I also recognized it would only do so in the same way as everything else I’ve ever purchased — only for a while and only in a limited way.

Sooner or later, the feeling would fade. But the appetite for feeling good, feeling happy, would not.

This is how I started to realize that better is more important than happy.

Because in debating with myself over whether I should buy this thing, I recognized that the feeling of happiness it might bring would fade.

And as I recognized that, the thought came into my mind, “Maybe this will make you happy for a little while. But even if it does, will it make you better?”

That’s a whole different question.

Will this thing make me better?

It might make my life easier, more comfortable, etc. But will it make me better?

It’s an important question because unfortunately, being or feeling happy doesn’t make up for not being good. It doesn’t make up for the ways I should be a better person. It just works on the feelings of that not-yet-better person. It doesn’t actually change me.

That was a tough realization.

I thought about it for a minute.

Then I asked myself, “If it doesn’t make me a better person then how long will I really be happy?"  How long can I distract myself with something that makes me feel happy if things are not really getting better with me?”

The answer came quickly: “Not long.” 

“But why?”

“Because…

Unfortunately, sin and brokenness quickly interrupt our happiness.

Not only that, sin and brokenness feed off our happiness by corrupting it.

Our sin and brokenness actually use happiness against us to generate more unhappiness through pushing us to long for that next feeling of happy.

They suggest that we should, in fact, feel unhappy that we don’t have something else we want (even if we just got another thing we wanted). Or we should feel unhappy that we have to wait for it. Or worse still — we should feel very unhappy that we might never get it. That, they say, is fuel for rage or despair. Get out your sackcloth and ashes.

Sin and brokenness interrupt any present happiness by telling us, “Never mind that the thing you just got. Focus on your next happy. You know that happy won’t last either. But just keep buying. Keep working. Keep straining. Keep desiring. It’s all you can do…”

It is not all we can do. Buying our way into happiness is a trap.

It is a trap because it will not make us better, even if it promises to make us feel better. And buying a feeling that’s disconnected from the reality it’s meant to change in us is a losing game.

A winning game is not just feeling good but being good. Because being good leads to feeling good.

The two are connected. One flows from the other.

You will not feel good if you are not good.

At least not for long. You’ll need things to refresh the feeling that isn’t innately there. Like striking one match after another in a pitch black room, the light will continue to die out.

Much better, then, to focus on, strive towards and desire to be better. Because being better doesn’t rest on the next purchase, experience, job or relationship. It rests on being in tune with God — keeping in step with the Spirit since we live by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).

To be in tune with God is to be in tune with the things that give life (Prov. 3:1-2) and that last forever (1 John 2:17; 2 Cor. 4:16-18). It is to be out of tune with the things of sin and brokenness, which take life (Rom. 6:23) and are fading away (1 John 2:8, 17).

What’s lacking in our on-again, off-again happiness is our being better — our being more in tune with God.

We don’t need another ___________, a new __________ to finally, truly (or just momentarily) be happy.

We can’t buy our way there. It won’t last. When we try to buy it, the feeling remains disconnected from our being. We’re not changing who we are — just how how we feel about who we are. It’s like stapling an apple on a tree instead of growing it. It will just quickly rot and fall.

What we need is the reduction of sin in our selves and our world — to have our world and our selves be more in tune with the God who is forever blessed (Rom. 9:5). That’s what makes us truly happy — the removal of the curse (Gen. 3:14-19) and all its effects.

We need our selves and our world to be better.

It’s being better — being in tune with God and out of tune with sin and brokenness —that fuels our being truly happy. It frees us to be happy more consistently and more resiliently. Because our happiness does not rest on circumstances. It rests on our unshakeable connection to the God who blesses and is forever blessed.

Better, then, is more important than happy.

Fortunately for all who believe in him, Christ has removed the curse of sin and death (though the time is still to come when he will fully wipe them away).

Now, all that’s left for us is to collectively put down the self-deception of the pursuit of happiness and collaboratively work (through the Spirits empowerment) on living ‘better’ rather than simply ‘happy.’