Misery is not Our Calling

People settle for a level of despair they can tolerate and call it happiness.Søren Kierkegaard

Misery is all too common. In my opinion, in today’s world we are more miserable than ever. Suicide, depression, anxiety, and psychological strain are more prevalent than at any other time in history. People are miserable and full of despair. Lack of meaning is dominant. Overwhelming emptiness fills us. We look at life and ask, “Why?”

For so long it was appropriate, and expected, that you put on a happy face and call the misery happiness. That was not right, because no one was real. Life and social interactions were just facades. It was a projection of what we wished we felt. Now the pendulum has swung too far the other way. It is trendy to be depressed and anxious. It is like a rite of passage to be full of despondency. We say, “Oh, you are having a hard time? There is something wrong with you.” We attempt to medicate our own misery and lack of meaning.

We have become so accustomed to misery that we treat it as an inevitable part of the human condition, rather than asking why we are so miserable. We call our suffering our identity. We believe unhappiness is something to be affirmed rather than overcome. We have stressed happiness so much that we have forgotten what we are meant for. We are not called to happiness, though. We can have moments of happiness, but it does not last. Humans need meaning and aim.

When we wander around this fallen world without aim, consumed with ourselves and our own misery, we lose sight of what we are called to. When we realize we are called to look beyond ourselves, and to the One who created us, we find something different from the fleeting happiness we had pursued. We find joy. Joy is not based on what we happen to be experiencing at any given moment. It is based on God, and on aiming for His will. This imperfect world cannot provide perfect peace and unending joy. A perfect, eternal God can.