Recently, Jimmy and I spent the weekend at our home in South Carolina. While there, it is my practice shortly after waking, to walk to the back doors and look outside. This particular Saturday morning I was greeted with a view that is not a welcome sight along the shoreline. Jimmy joined me at the doors as I was stepping out to the porch, just in time to hear me mutter, “Oh no, oh no, oh no…..this is not good”. I could instantly feel the anxiousness…..a sense of dread…..and sadness as it washed through my body….. leaving a pit in the bottom of my stomach. The sight outside our doors was an indication that someone was missing in the water…..and the search had begun.
There were several official boats with their red lights flashing and men standing on the bows as they combed through the water. Apparently the call for assistance had spread throughout the local boating and fishing community. Responding to the call, many locals in their small boats had joined in the search. As I looked to the north, there were even more boats heading south through the water to be of help. In total, there were 25 to 30 small craft, all with a passenger standing on the bow, all of them methodically crisscrossing as they weaved a pattern in the surf, all of them searching. They were riding the waves and the current as they peered into the water hoping to find what they were searching for.
I wandered down our walkway toward the ocean and as I stood at the edge of the dunes…..I began to pray. I prayed for the boaters who were frantically, but carefully, searching; I prayed for the one who was lost; and I prayed for the family somewhere anxiously awaiting news of their loved one.
The memory of all those boats and their search kept returning to my mind. As I thought about the image, I began to ask myself – what in our lives have we searched for so methodically? What have we searched for with such focus and determination? What have we searched for so intently that we called for assistance? What have we been willing to ride waves and currents in pursuit of? What has remained just out of our sight, but yet, we continue to look knowing that it exists?
One answer could be the constant pursuit of happiness. Happiness that always seems elusive. Happiness that will always arrive with “the next”…..the next promotion, the next relationship, the next house….. Or perhaps, for some, happiness will arrive “when”…..when I get married, when I retire, when I have a family, when I am an empty nester. Unfortunately, “the next” and “when” sometimes don’t materialize or arrive; sometimes “the next” and “when” arrive but happiness still escapes us.
Wouldn’t it be more satisfying to realize happiness lives right where you are? Wouldn’t it be freeing to understand that happiness exists in each season of our lives? Wouldn’t it be comforting to accept that in our lives…..right in this very moment…..we are exactly where we are supposed to be?
What if we quit crisscrossing and searching through our lives and chose to live in the moment? What if we quit peering into the moving waters and look inward for what is missing? What if we quit standing on the bow while riding the current and place both feet on solid ground? What if we stop relying only on what we can see and put our faith in what is unseen?
Perhaps happiness is found each morning as we make the choice to be happy. Perhaps happiness is discovered when we begin each day with a grateful heart. Perhaps happiness is balanced with doing more for others than we do for ourselves. Perhaps happiness arrives when we learn to love and accept ourselves…..when we learn to love and accept others. Perhaps happiness truly becomes attainable when we put our trust in God, believing that our lives are unfolding according to His plan. Perhaps happiness is reached when we stop struggling for “the next” and “when” and just enjoy each day as a gift.
We shouldn’t waste another day searching for happiness…..happiness is a choice; happiness is found within you; happiness is right where you are right now…..stop searching, just reach out and take hold of it!
While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
