HAPPINESS – COURTESY OF THE GOVERNMENT
The Government is going to try to measure happiness as an indicator of the effectiveness of their policies. The Office for National Statistics will lead a debate called “The National Wellbeing Project” which will seek to establish the key areas that matter most to people’s wellbeing. Potential indicators will apparently include health, levels of education, inequalities in income and the environment – as Mr. Cameron put it, echoing Bobby Kennedy, “all those things that make life worthwhile.”
Mr. Cameron has stressed the fact that prosperity alone cannot deliver happiness and that the government must promote quality of life as well as economic growth. The previous government had also discussed the same issue and looked at measuring general well-being (GMB) as part of their assessment of the effectiveness of their policies. But what is happiness?
Happiness cannot easily be defined. For most people it is dependent on a variety of factors and circumstances, and changes from moment to moment. As has been pointed out by a number of people, a happiness measure will inevitably show differences between groups and individuals that will not easily be resolved. In other words you can’t please all the people, ever!
What seems to be being overlooked is that there are things that make life worthwhile but don’t necessarily lead to happiness. Romans 13 gives us a view of the role of government where the defence of the nation, the administration of justice and the rewarding of righteousness are paramount. They will bring well-being but will they always bring happiness? The reflection on life of the wise man in Ecclesiastes 3:12 drew this conclusion, “there is nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live.” For him happiness came from eating and drinking, and finding satisfaction in all our toil, which is all a gift from God. This God-ward element in life is key to all happiness as far as the Bible is concerned – “happy is the man that trusts in God” (Psalm 84:12). So in several places we learn, “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 144:15)
Jesus began a sermon in which He spelt out the nature of true well-being. Matthew 5:3-12 sets out the nature of ‘blessedness’ which is really ‘happiness’. I doubt whether the Office of National Statistics will include as indicators the recognition of spiritual poverty, mourning for sin, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, purity of heart, being a peacemaker through the Gospel, being persecuted for righteousness sake, and being insulted for Christ’s sake. But those are the basic ingredients that produce well-being.
They do not match what people would normally look for in constructing happiness but they are the Saviour’s prescription and bring with them such benefits that true happiness flows. It is from the knowledge of God and relying entirely on His goodness that happiness comes. Such well-being will not be affected too much by the policies and practices of the government, and they are unlikely to show up on any state sponsored measure.
The value of the government’s proposals have yet to be worked out, but the value of what God produces in the lives of His people has been proven over many generations. But the focus on well-being must be encouraging for Christians. Many people lack a sense of well-being and long for happiness in their lives. We have the answer in Christ: An answer we should proclaim with all our energy.
The issue in the end is not happiness and well-being as it is felt here and now. The heart of the matter is God and our relationship to Him. There are times when we are happy and times when we are sad, but there are no times when God is not involved in our lives. He is the guarantor of our well-being and He alone can make us truly happy. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us this – “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider. God has made the one as well as the other.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
Roger Hitchings
27th November 2010