Misguided Expectations Lead to Unhappy People

In my continuing journey today through my desk drawers as we prepare for our upcoming move, I was still reading through some items we had managed to collect over these past few years. I ran across an article by George Will that had been sent to me in 2006, and had been published in the "Daily Press" newspaper in Hampton in February of that year and, no doubt, in many other markets as well. He was talking about polls that are designed to determine who the happiest people are. Most of the findings did not surprise me. I was well-acquainted with the data. Religious people are, on the whole, happier than non-religious. Married people are, as a rule, happier than single. Conservatives usually turn out to be happier than liberals. The question that comes to mind, of course, is why are certain groups generally happier than others. Will had an interesting answer to that question, and I think he got it right. He essentially said that those groups of people are happier who have a healthy kind of pessimism about the human race. Let me give my own adapted and modified and slightly expanded version of why I think some people are happier than others. I think back to what Scott Peck said in the opening sentence of his book, "The Road Less Traveled." "Life is difficult." As soon as we understand that, it makes things a lot easier to bear. The reason some people are happier than others is often because their expectations are very different from those of other people. If you really believe that people are inherently and basically good, you're going to be disappointed. As a biblical Christian, I already know that people are inherently evil. The doctrine of original sin, of total depravity, is alive and well. This does not make me a cynic, since my ultimate faith is in God and the assurance that all will work to His glory. But it does keep me from having unrealistic and false expectations about my fellow man. If you really believe that most of the answers to the serious problems confronting the nation and the world are going to be found through government, you are destined to be disappointed and disillusioned. Governments have proven time and time again that they are either incapable or unwilling to solve the most pressing problems facing humanity. If you really believe that pragmatism is always the best route, then you will always have a society which is superficial and materialistic. Pragmatism, as a driving force in society, will never rise to the heights of great causes and mighty principles. In short, the sectarian, the statist, and the utilitarian, will all be disappointed in the end. They cannot possibly be truly happy in any meaningful, permanent way. The Christian, on the other hand, has all the reason in the world to be truly happy. It is as the Bible says, that Jesus did not "commit himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man." (John 2:24-25.) A proper understanding and appreciation for the true nature of man will go a long way toward making a person truly happy.