Why am I unhappy?

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Saint Augustine answered that question at its root when he wrote, “You have made us for Yourself and [therefore] our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

If God has made us and designed us to be happy with him, then nothing else can take his place. God is the food our spirits need to eat. Other things will make our body happy (Eccl 2:24; 3:13; 5:18–20), but not our spirit, our soul, our true self. Other things will make us happy for a while, but not for long. Other things will make us happy on a superficial level, but not deep down.

In the Bible, we read that all happiness, all joy, all beauty come from God (James 1:17). The joy of friendship, the beauty of nature, the happiness of human love were all created by God and designed to reflect his joy and beauty, to carry a little of his joy to us as the air carries the light of the sun. 

Every joy you ever feel is a reflection of God. God is not one of the many sources of joy, for “religious people” only (whoever they are). God is the source of all joys that exist. Following his way is guaranteed to lead to joy; following other roads is guaranteed to lead to misery. Read Psalm 1, which summarizes that point simply but poetically. The point is made literally thousands of times in the Bible. Its lesson is really incredibly simple. Believe and love and obey God, and you will be happy.

But, you may say, the source of my unhappiness comes from problems with people here, not with God—with parents or friends or relatives or authority figures. Perhaps. But the root of the problem goes back to your relationship with God. Here is Thomas Merton’s two-step diagnosis of all problems in human relationships: “We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves. And we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.” Adam and Eve certainly learned that lesson when they disobeyed God. Read Genesis 3.

Do you want to be happy? Then give God a chance. He is stronger than any human need, any unhappiness, even any sin. “Where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more” (Rom 5:20).

The great American poet T.S. Eliot said that the greatest line in all the world’s literature is the simple line from Dante, perhaps the greatest poet of all time: “In his will, our peace.”

Try it. You’ll like it.



Kreeft, P. J. 

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