Sabbath Thought - Unhappiness

The COVID virus has certainly changed the landscape of the culture around us.  The forced shutdown gave people time to consider their priorities in life - such as work schedules, work environment, time with family, quality of life, and more.  The dark side of the COVID pandemic that not many talk about is the depression and other mental health issues that came to the forefront or were aggravated by the long public quarantine.  Even now, there is a lingering unsettledness and unhappiness that is affecting many.

The General Social Survey (GSS) reports that more than 30% of young adults describe themselves as "not too happy" with 22% of adults 35 years and older saying the same.  Unhappiness has been steadily increasing since the 1970s, but the pandemic exacerbated the crisis in a way that has never been seen before.  Suddenly, people across the board -- old and young, college-educated and working-class, employed and unemployed -- are reporting similar levels of dissatisfaction.  Even now that the world has reopened and normal life has returned, many people still cannot shake themselves of the feeling that their lives have been irreversibly uprooted.

The survey found that the only ones who seem able to pull themselves out of the pandemic slump are the married and religious.  In these two demographics, unhappiness rose just 8 percentage points for married young adults, versus 18 percentage points for the unmarried.  And among those who attend religious services at least two times per month, unhappiness rose only 4 percentage points, whereas those who attended less often experienced a 15 percentage-point increase.  60% of young adults are unmarried and irreligious, according to the Institute for Family Studies.

Satan has filled this world with fear, but we are the people of God!  We are not to be driven by fear (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:18)!  God's Holy Spirit helps us to have joy (Romans 14:17, Romans 15:13) even during uncertain times.  True joy - Godly joy - comes from not trying to control what happens around us, but rather to focus on the positives of the calling God has given to each of us.  What we can control is how we respond to what happens around us.  We have the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:44) - we know the meaning of this life and want the life God is offering as part of His family.

We can have Godly joy now because we have the faith of Christ in us (Philippians).  We can have Godly joy because we know that we are already sons and daughter of God (Galatians 4:4-7)!  The Apostle Peter called this joy "unexpressable and full of [God's] glory" (1 Peter 1:8). 

As God's called-out ones, we have no reason to be unhappy, and every reason to be full of His joy - now!  We don't have to be blown about with the trials and uncertain times the world around us faces with fear and unhappiness.  As the Apostle John prayed, our joy in God should be full because of the future He promises us (1 John 1:4)!

I wish you a very happy Sabbath,

Dan Dowd

29 July, 2022