Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Emotions - by Tracy Guthrie, CE Adviser in Africa

In these final days before my departure to Kenya, I have felt excited, stressed, eager, overwhelmed, peaceful, frustrated, scared, inspired, confused and grateful. Despite my ever changing emotions there has always been happiness.

This got me to thinking, how often do we really feel happiness? If people really are happy why don’t they say so? When you ask someone “How ya doin’?” do you ever get the response “I’m happy!”? Most people just nod, give a half-ass smile and look away. Some people look you in the eye, smile and mumble a quick “I’m doing good, how about yourself?” It is a rare occasion when someone gives a response with passion and energy. I’ve tested this theory on Town Lake. I gave a huge smile to every person I passed on the trail and said “Good Morning!” Some people responded with a half-ass smile and quickly looked away, but most people just nodded. There were two individuals who responded with joy. They were in their eighties and probably just happy to still be walking.

So why now? Why am I so happy? The only conclusion I can come up with is my trip to Kenya is what God created me to do. Since He made me, He knows what will give me pure happiness. It makes perfect sense, right? Unfortunately it took me 30 years to figure out God is the key to happiness.

I am not disillusioned. I don’t expect to be happy every second of every day for the rest of my life, but I do expect myself to seek God, not worldly things for happiness. I recommend you try it out. What can it hurt?

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