Maybe it's just me but it seems like people complain a lot. "I can't retire in two years because the stock market isn't doing well." "Some guy said something that offended me." "Some other guy cut me off in traffic." "My co-workers are idiots." I hear complaints like this all the time from people who have food to eat, clothes to wear, a roof over their heads, and are also reasonably healthy. Even if these complaints are true, is it helpful to complain endlessly about things we can't control, especially ones that are minor in the grand scheme of things? Some say we're less prosperous than we were in the 1980s - did everyone have a cell phone and a flat screen TV back then? We have bigger houses, better cars, and more gadgets than our parents could have imagined, yet happiness often eludes us. What's the problem? We look for happiness where it doesn't exist. Looking for wheat in a corn field is pointless. Likewise, looking for happiness in material possessions is pointless; you won't find it there. You have to find the true source of happiness in order to acquire it.
Paul said this to the church at Philippi: "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity ; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11-13, NAS) He also described himself "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything." (2 Corinthians 6:10, ESV) Paul is telling us that happiness is not found in the abundance (or lack of) material possessions. Happiness is about the promise of eternal life that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ. If we are naked and destitute yet we have this promise from God, yes we have nothing, but we still possess everything.
