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{"id":31671,"date":"2011-12-09T00:05:47","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T07:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=31671"},"modified":"2014-12-30T19:15:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T02:15:46","slug":"12-things-happy-people-do-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2011\/12\/12-things-happy-people-do-differently.html","title":{"rendered":"12 Things Happy People Do Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This sort of article <\/a>is a classic example of how the seeds of the word are already present in a lot of popular culture. Much of it rehashes counsel that comes to us from the New Testament: be thankful, live in hope, don\u2019t enviously compare yourself with others, be kind, love your neighbor, learn patience, forgive. It gets a bit New Agey when we start being counseled to \u201cincrease flow experiences\u201d (which, I *think* translates into Christianese as \u201cdo the things God gifted you to do and you will find pleasure in it\u201d).<\/p>\n

But the main thing is: stuff like this is all over in our culture and it is emphatically a \u201cglass half full\u201d opportunity for Christians if we will only see it as such and not just wave it off in disgust as insufficiently pure, orthodox, and glass half empty. Not a few Christians forget that there\u2019s nothing wrong with desiring happiness. It\u2019s not \u201cshallow\u201d to do so. Indeed, Jesus inaugurated his ministry precisely with an appeal to those who want\u2013as we are all built by God to want\u2013happiness. The beatitudes are, in fact, a prescription for achieving happiness. So when the author of an article like this speaks, our first response should not be, \u201cGreat! Another New Age dimwit with a health and wealth plan for a comfy life.\u201d It should be, \u201cYou\u2019re on the right track. Jesus says much the same thing. Let me explain to you the way of happiness (also known as \u201csalvation\u201d) more thoroughly. That\u2019s what Priscilla and Aquila did with a half-baked but earnest young preacher named Apollos<\/a>. It\u2019s what Paul did on the Areopagus. It\u2019s what the Church did with pagans afterward. No reason we can\u2019t do it too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"