Discerning Happiness

Last week, I invited you to consider the question Jesus asked of his first disciples: “What do you want? What are your desires?” Maybe you thought about it then let it slide out of consciousness. That’s a shame – these questions tend to get swamped by the demands of daily life yet those deep desires, when properly discerned and developed give energy and colour to our lives. Lacking energy? Feeling bored with life? Then perhaps you need to listen again to Jesus’ question: “What do you want?”

Have you noticed how some people seem to have so much energy to do what they want? For many, it will be because they have listened to their heart and discerned what it truly is that they want. The operative word here is discerned. Out desires don’t come out of our hearts prioritised with an accurate scale of importance with the amount of time we should spend on each element. They come out as a jumble and are more unruly than misbehaving children screaming in the supermarket. We must work to sort out which desires will bring fullness of life and foster love to others, to God and to yourself. Yes, that question of Jesus, “What do you want?’ is crucial for cultivating happiness in our lives.

Loving God, give us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may listen to the desires our hearts. With the love and support of Jesus our brother may those desires be a life-giving force in our lives. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.