The Way DAY 26 - Happy?

DAY 26 - Happy?

Luke 6:17-26

Jesus has gone viral. People from all over want to see him. Luke says, “The people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.” Some Pharisees, however, have been dogging his every step: scrutinizing, criticizing, obsessing. 

Now Jesus casts his vision for life. This is Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). It has three parts. We have to read the entire sermon together to make sense of it, all of Luke 6:17-49. 

In part one, Jesus upends our picture of happiness. “You think you know happiness, you think you know success, but you don’t. You think the rich, the well-fed, the cheerful, and the popular are happy. But the poor, the hungry, the mournful, and the vilified: you’ll be the real winners.”

If that makes you uncomfortable, good. That’s the point. Our usual metrics to measure success and happiness aren’t reliable. Looks are deceiving. How many celebrities have secretly been depressed, or even ended their own lives? 

Jesus is getting us ready for a different way to live. A better way. If you want to be happy and successful, step one is knowing your metric is busted. 

REFLECT
How have you defined happiness and success in your life? Have you ever found that your definition was challenged or changed?

PRAY
Jesus, you challenge our pictures of happiness and success. To be honest, it makes me a little uncomfortable. But I trust you to show me a better way to live. Teach me. Amen.