God doesn't want you to be happy.

Attention grabbing headline, eh?
I recently stumbled into a strange situation. A married man, searching for a girlfriend, because he and his wife were separated. Except he referred to himself as divorced.

As he so eloquently put it he was lonely and wanted to be happy.

And I'd like to just go on the record right now as saying "God doesn't want you to be happy."
He wants you to be so much more than just happy.

But unfortunately, we're so adamant that being a Christian means being happy that we chase happiness. When all the while God wants us to chase Him, and doing right and doing good - even when it's hard and miserable and hurts.

Maybe you're married to someone who doesn't care about you anymore and is asking for a divorce, God wants you to stay married even though it's not fun.

Maybe you're working at a job that you hate, but God hasn't provided another one and has made it clear that it's where you're supposed to be. God wants you to work, and work diligently without badmouthing your company even though you're frustrated.

Maybe you're at a church that has grown a little stale for you but God still wants you there even though you hate the singing and the preaching is canned. God wants you to stay, support and pray for the church until He moves you. Even though you feel you aren't "growing" there, you'll just have to work on that growing at home or with other options.

Sometimes, whether at home, church, or work (the three major areas of most of our lives) God is willing to let you be unhappy with a situation. And amazingly enough, the God of the universe doesn't automatically move us around to where our greatest feeling of "happiness" is.

He puts us in hard situations, miserable ones (worse than martyrdom because you only wish you could die to get out of it! but you're stuck indefinitely) and He expects us to serve Him, do the right thing, and trust Him with the outcome.

It's far more worth it.

We chase temporal things like oh-so-fleeting happiness - while we lose out on true joy and peace that will last.

Don't trade right for happy.