Is it wrong to seek happiness? Alcorn seeks to answer this question along with many others in this short booklet. He breaks down the worn out trope that says Christians are supposed to be joyful but not happy. Biblically, Alcorn makes the case that these words are synonyms. Other words include gladness, merriment, delight, and pleasure which are found all throughout Scripture (6). The point is that God built us to desire happiness, and that happiness is chiefly to be sought in him (7). People can seek happiness in sinful things, yes, but it is not the pursuit that is wrong, but where it is sought.

This is just one of the question Alcorn breaks down along with countless others.

Here’s another helpful question he walks through: Is God by nature happy or unhappy? Alcorn says, “I’m convinced most people view God as typically unhappy. They think, ‘Maybe he has occasional moments of happiness, but because we sin we make God unhappy over and over.’ But this logic begins in the wrong place—with us. We flatter ourselves by imagining we are the primary source of God’s happiness, tilting him one way or the other by what we think, do, and say” (27).

Christians do not have to choose between God and happiness. True happiness can only be found in an eternally happy God (32). Sin and worry are enemies of happiness. Embracing holiness does not mean abandoning happiness. “When we lose ourselves in God’s purposes, Jesus says we’ll find ourselves-and also happiness. The sacrifice of following Jesus produces in us the greatest, most lasting happiness” (62).

Great read. ( )