Several times over the past few weeks I have heard several different people utter the following phrase:
“Well, as long as they’re happy…”
In each case, the person was speaking about someone else and some event that was going on in that person’s life. After the last time I heard the phrase (earlier this week), I realized that I don’t like this particular expression. For two reasons…
First, the person saying expressing it rarely really means it. It is often said to mask the speaker’s disapproval of the other person’s behavior, attitude, or action. I noted in almost ever case that I heard it over the past few weeks that the saying came at the end of a fairly lengthy discourse in which the speaker had made their disapproval very clear. It seems to me that this need to cover up is born out of society’s “truth is relative” paradigm. The cover up just seems a little disingenuous (and not very real) to me. If you disapprove…at least be honest about it (and truth is not relative by the way, but that’s a blog for another day).
Second, and perhaps most important, I just don’t think the phrase is true. Is everything in life really OK as long as we are happy? Absolutely not!! I speak from personal experience. There have been many times in my life when I was “happy” (doing what I wantedto do instead of what I shoulddo) and in almost every case I ended up miserable. And the inverse is also typically true…God has often (more than I can count), redeemed times in my life when I thought nothing was going right (I wasn’t “happy”). Looking back on those times…He has truly worked them out for my good in the big picture (see Romans 8:28 for more on this topic).
So while I want to be happy…I want it God’s way, not my way (because I tend to screw it up anyway). And if you see me doing something bone-headed, wrong, or just plain sinful…please don’t just say you just hope I’m happy. Hit me over the head with a 2×4 and knock some blessed sense into me…will ya please?
