Month 3:04, Week 1:3 (Shleshi/Bikkurim), Year:Day 5936:063 AM
Gregorian Calendar: Thursday 24 May 2012
Are You Happy? IV
Attending, ADD and the Plea
Continued from Part 3
"O Elohim (God), You are my Elohim (God); early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water" (Ps.63:1, NKJV).
As far as the emotion called 'happiness' is concerned I am sure you will agree with me when I say it is very unpredictable. In desperation do people try to hold onto it failing to realise that it is rooted in Yahweh and not themselves. Happiness comes from Elohim (God) and nowhere else. We may think we are generating it all on our own but we are not.
This extraordinarily deep and rich 'energy' is not of human origin even if we may be deceived by the illusion of believing it comes from certain 'things' or 'events' or is even generated magically by our own levim (hearts). You see, happiness is not some mere 'energy' or 'power' but possesses divine personality too. And if it's of the non-psychic, spiritual, eternal kind then it cannot - and does not - last. It is exclusively tied up in Yah'shua (Jesus). The only way to own it is to quite simply orientate ourselves more fully to Yahweh and live His chayim (life) within us. Though everybody is born with a portion of it, we make contact with its fullness when we are born again and retain it in proportion to our ability to attend to Yahweh - waiting on Him and longing for Him in loving obedience.
Now by the very word 'attend' I mean the state of having an open mind and lev (heart), waiting and ready to be penetrated by Him. This is a very female, receptive 'thing' on the part of people that comes more naturally to women than to men but is nonetheless something that all those of the male gender must learn. Our ability and capacity to thus 'attend' to Yahweh will determine the fruitfulness of our prayer life.
I am sure you have all heard of ADD or 'Attention Deficit Disorder'. Its symptoms are inattention, easy distractibility, disorganisation, procrastination and forgetfulness. Though the psychiatric profession would make a mental 'disease' of this, in truth we all suffer from it, including psychiatrists. There can, of course, be many causes of the symptoms described but the most fundamental is surely a lack of attention to Yahweh. When we are improperly connected to Him in our spirits, then the results are these self same spiritual symptoms in our prayer life and an obvious cause of unhappiness.
The solution is not complex and is clearly indicated by the simplicity of the opening words in today's passage as a deep cry of intent from ever deeper levels of our being: "O Elohim (God), You are my Elohim (God)"! As we make this cry to be penetrated by Him so we are gradually taken out of ourselves and into His ecstatic presence - perhaps not all at once but more likely in consequence of a series of determined, repeated attempts to get past our spiritual 'ADD'.
I have known so many men of theology and leadership who have got lost and whose only way back into the presence of El Elyon (the Most High) is by simply making this constant plea at ever greater depths. I include myself in their ranks for every one of us is prone to wander and get lost. Until we are finally captivated by that sublime conjunction of beauty, emet (truth) and chesed (goodness), which is the Divine Glory, we shall remain 'ADD' victims, lost in a haze of words whilst substantially lacking any real contact with the Bridegroom. Not until we have discovered the happiness and simcha (joy) of Elohim (God) Himself can we obtain deliverance from 'ADD'.
In the light of this simcha (joy) all things are seen in their proper perspective and we are set free to experience the healing emotion of happiness as a welcome gift, as spirit, psyche and physical body become echad (one).
If you have sought for the ultimate happiness in people you will always be disappointed. This human-derived emotion is notoriously will-o'-the-wisp - it comes and it goes as we grapple in vain to hold onto it. We cannot command it to come and though we try to cling onto it and plead with it to stay, it strides out of the front door of our lives with no word about when, if ever, it might return.
When happiness comes it is marvellous. It smiles, laughs and delights our whole being. But is it not, for most of us, essentially just a visitor or messenger? Each time we taste happiness we obtain a foretaste of that ultimate state when Elohim (God) will be all in all (1 Cor.12:6; 15:28; Eph.1:23). And yet that Elohim (God) we do have now, at all times and in all circumstances. He's there, we just somehow lose the connection because we are not being attentive to him. Our carelessness in prayer or lack of obedience to His mitzvot (commandments) causes us to wander away into a spiritual 'ADD' and pretty soon we get distracted and disorganised, we procrastinate doing what we should do and before long we have completely forgotten Him and what it is to walk with Him. Then perhaps, if we are not foolish, we will remember that the happiness we long for, a happiness of surpassing delight, endlessly sustained, lies in Yahweh Himself and only in Him, and not in our own limited and progressively depleting resources.
The way to be happy is to know Yahweh through His Son Yah'shua (Jesus), and to become better and better at it through giving greater and greater attention to Him. As we live closer to Him and love Him more, so will our happiness grow into real simcha (joy) beyond happiness even in the midst of tribulation and the unhappiness of the world:
"You will show me the derech (path) of chayim (life); in Your presence is fullness of simcha (joy); at Your right hand are nayim (pleasures) forevermore" (Ps.16:11, NKJV).
Continued in Part 5
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