Happiness Is..
But real happiness is not rooted in things or possessions. Many years ago when my wife and I were stationed in Labrador we learned this lesson from an old indian couple. My wife and I, along with our four year old son, went down by the river to visit the old couple and to bring them some provisions. We found the old indian, his flesh baked brown and his hands gnarled by the sun and storms of many years, sitting in front of his tent whittling on a juniper stick. His wife, looking every bit as old and brown, and puffing contentedly on her pipe, stood close by leaning over her washtub. They were two of the happiest people I had ever known. They possessed few of what we deem the necessities of life. There was no two hundred and fifty thousand dollar house with all the modern conveniences, but just a canvas tent nestled among the fir trees by the side of the mighty Churchill River. This tent sheltered them in summer and winter plus 35 centigrade above or 40 degrees below. Nor was there a high powered car parked by the door; only a lone mangy dog that hauled a sled in winter and roamed at will during the summer. Their clothes left much to be desired; they had no neighbors, and medicare was a visit every six weeks from a Grenfell Mission nurse. One thing was certain these two indians( members of the Nascopic Tribe) living alone in a tent by the side of the river were happy and contented. The late Helen Keller said, "Many persons have a wrong idea about what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." The bottom line is that whether a man's material possessions are many or few, he can be happy. This happiness comes when a person acknowledges God and lives Christianity as taught by Jesus. If we seek happiness in anything beside the peace of God and a good conscience, we shall as certainly be unhappy as anything in the world is uncertain.
