Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of God

Behold, not the philosophers, but only people who like to argue, state that all are happy who live according to their will. This, of course, is not true, for to wish what is not fitting is the worst of wretchedness. But it is not so deplorable to fail of attaining what we desire as it is to wish to attain what is not proper. For greater evil is brought about through one’s wicked will than happiness through fortune.
—From Cicero’s Hortensius

Ever since Thomas Jefferson’s immortal words, Americans have held a special place for the “pursuit of happiness.” In recent times we have seen this pursuit of become a right to happiness in most any form, and a right from anything that gets in the way. For example, we want to have the right to free speech when it applies to our talk (be it ridden with obscenities, blasphemy, or treason) and the right not to hear speech that is critical of our vices (or, as they are often called, our “orientations”). We also want to have the right to kill ourselves or our unborn children if our happiness is in jeopardy.

Our happiness is the primary determinant of our lifestyles. Observe how many of our non-working hours are built around forms of entertainment. And even work, for some, is a pursuit of self-gratification when it is done at the expense of one’s family.

Unfortunately, the church today reflects these values as well. I am reminded of a commentary written by a famous television preacher a few years ago on Matthew 5:1–12 entitled The Be Happy Attitudes. This focus on happiness is, I fear, missing the point of the Christian life. True, we are called to rejoice always, but we also are told to take up our crosses. The happiness of the Christian cannot come through the fulfillment of every desire. Perhaps this is why Cicero’s Hortensius is so often quoted by St. Augustine in his book De Beata Vita (The Happy Life).

In his last published work C. S. Lewis wrote of this problem. It appeared shortly after his death in an essay in The Saturday Evening Post entitled “We have no ‘Right to Happiness’”:

Though the “right to happiness” is chiefly claimed for the sexual impulse, it seems to me impossible that the matter should stay there. The fatal impulse, once allowed in that department, must sooner or later seep through our whole lives. We thus advance toward a state of society in which not only each man but every impulse in each man claims carte blanche. And then, though our technological skill may help us survive a little longer, our civilization will have died at heart, and will—one dare not even add “unfortunately”—be swept away.

As Christians, we give up the right to happiness and in its place we gain true joy. We have joy because we love God and obey him. True happiness will come to us because of this joy, not because we have two-car garages. Jesus promised each of us an abundant life, not a good sexual partner. Happiness only will be ours when we desire and follow after God—but if we demand it on our own terms, I fear Lewis’s prophecy will come true.

“As Christians, we give up the right to happiness and in its place we gain true joy. We have joy because we love God and obey him.”

Thomas S. Buchanan is the George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware. He has studied at UCSD, Northwestern University, and MIT, and has held visiting professorships at the University of Western Australia and the University of Aix-Marseille. He has served as department chairman, deputy dean, and institute director, president of the American Society of Biomechanics, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Biomechanics. He is on the Board of Trustees of Saint Katherine College, the editorial board of Touchstone, and the board of The Fellowship of St. James.

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more on religious liberty from the online archives

27.3—May/June 2014

Religious Freedom & Why It Matters

Working in the Spirit of John Leland by Robert P. George

24.6—Nov/Dec 2011

Statutes of Liberty

on the Tyranny of Modern Freedom versus the Freedom of Jesus by Gillis J. Harp

25.3—May/Jun 2012

The Soul of Liberty

Calls for Freedom, Democracy & Secularism End Up with None of the Above by Hunter Baker