Day 76 - A God-shaped hole

Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess. I thank the Lord that I’ve been blessed with more than my share of happiness.

Not my words, but those of the late Ken Dodd (but you all knew that anyway – and you will now be humming that tune for the rest of the day, for which I apologise now). And Ken may have a point. Happiness is indeed a great gift. But what is it that makes us truly happy?

Fortunately, researchers have given us an answer with the publication of the annual World Happiness Report. This has ranked 137 countries of the world by their happiness. (Finland is, apparently, the happiest country following by Denmark and Iceland. The UK comes in at 19th.) But, more interestingly, the report also looks at what makes us happy. Over many years, researchers have consistently concluded that it is not money, material wealth or possessions that make us happy. Tellingly, the world’s first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, was once asked “How much money is enough money?” To which he replied, “Just a little more”. (I should add that, understandably, not having enough money to live on is understood to be a cause of unhappiness with many less economically developed countries sadly languishing at the bottom of the global happiness rankings.)

What the researchers found is that happiness is much more linked to caring and sharing. It is seen where there is trust (including where there is trust in the kindness of strangers), where people give as well as receive acts of generosity and kindness, and where people make social connections.

To Christians, this should come as no surprise. There are many references in the Bible to us being made in the image of our loving God. Over 1600 years ago, Augustine of Hippo famously wrote in his autobiographical Confessions that “You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” More recently, in the 17th-century, Blaise Pascal, the mathematician and philosopher, wrote that there is a vacuum in every person that cannot be filled by any created thing but only by the Creator.

Pascal is credited as the father of the idea that we all have a “God-shaped hole” in our lives. I love that phrase, and it goes to the heart of our faith. It is a recognition that we can only truly be at home when we make our home with our Creator, and that we are merely stewards of our material wealth and possessions. It is a place where we recognise that our skills, knowledge and wisdom are all gifts from God to be used for His purposes and glory.

In our world today, we are bombarded by images of wealth, greed, cruelty, materialism, fame and the use (and abuse) of power. It is so easy to become overwhelmed and disheartened, and to find it difficult to see God in it all. But He is there. On this Mindfulness Monday, let us pause to find, and give thanks for, the God-shaped hole in our lives, and to pray that all may find it in theirs.

Philip Clarke