On the 26th of January 2025, a personal article by Fergal Keane published in the BBC: “I Spent 30 Years Searching for Secret to Happiness — The Answer isn’t What I Thought”.
This is the Daily Monsoon. I am Terence, your host for this podcast, where I interpret the news from a Christian viewpoint. And when someone says he spent 30 years searching for happiness, and the answer isn’t what he expected, that sounds like the beginning of a Christian’s testimony.
The search for happiness is something that Christians understand and for us, our success is in understanding we actually want joy and not happiness, where joy is a stable state of being and happiness is the high in a roller-coaster ride of emotions.
Did Fergal find Christ. He did make a prayer at the end but no, this is not a come-to-Jesus article.
This is how the BBC leads the article:
In a powerful personal account, Fergal Keane reflects on living with PTSD, depression and his search for balance in life. What he has discovered along the way is a deeper study of happiness that can apply to those with serious mental health challenges, but also to those simply in need of a lift.
I will skip the journey and go straight to the destination, which is contrary to the pursuit of happiness. This is not to say how he came to have PTSD and depression to be unimportant or that there is nothing for us to learn from his long search for happiness. I just want to show how his not-so-secret secrets to happiness are comparable to the ordinary Christian’s call.
I quote:
I wrote a gratitude list every morning. My daily accounting of the good in my life.
To worship God is primarily to be thankful. And Christians are called to worship God every day not just on Sunday. Also, I wonder how his gratitude list works. I suppose it starts with, the phrase, “I am thankful for…”, whereas the Christian starts his list with a person to thank, “I thank you God…”
If your friend, John, gives you a wonderful gift, which sentence sounds more grateful, “I am thankful for this gift,” or “Thank you so much John, for your kindness!” If there is a gift, there is a giver. And if we are thankful, it should mean there is someone to be thankful to. And a failure to acknowledge that reality, to ignore John the giver, or God the Creator, stunts the expression of gratitude, which in full expression is a path to joy.
What else did Fergal do? I quote:
I read more poetry because it calms me down. I went for long walks with the dog by the River Thames and in Richmond Park. I even started to meditate – a miracle for a man who could rarely sit still for more than five minutes.
A quiet life. We all know what a peaceful life looks like, but so many people don’t want it because it’s boring. And then they say, “I wish I had a peaceful life.” No, you don’t. You want excitement. And Excitement brings along her friends, Stress, Uncertainty and Change. I am not saying Excitement is bad, I am saying that you can’t be in a state of peace and excitement at the same time.
You can carve out peace from a season of excitement, stress, uncertainty and change. Read the Bible. Meditate on what God says. Make these a habit and see what it does to the mind and soul. You don’t have to be a monk to read and meditate on the Bible every day. You can be a busy businessman, a busy housewife, the busiest bee in the beehive but inside you, you are a picture of peace and calmness because you have God’s eternal perspective in you.
Let’s have one more from Fergal’s article. I quote:
I made more time for friendship. And for love, of the people who mattered most to me. I listened where before I might only have pontificated. I worked very hard to shut up when someone wanted to express a resentment, instead of letting the childhood habits of defensiveness take over.
So, what do you think this sounds like?
Yes, the church, or at least what it’s meant to be. For many people, when the church does not describe the building, it describes an anonymous collective noun. The church that Christ commands to love one another, to bear each other’s burdens, to forgive, to care, to know, that seems to be something that would only come in the second coming of Christ. It does not describe what many people experience when they go to church.
But despite many people’s very public disappointments with church, it doesn’t have to be that way. And if your standards are reasonable, please don’t look for a perfect church, filled with perfect people, because if that church exists, you joining it will just ruin it. The church is a place for sinners to come together and be encouraged to live out their calling as saints together.
I have had bad experiences in the church, great experience in the church, I have seen miracles, and I have seen really wonderful people just leaning on God to get through the next day’s worth of crisis. More inspiring than the most inspiring movie because these people are real, with no soaring soundtrack to pull the heartstrings, no make-up or camera set up to capture the perfect moment; it’s just life.
And so, life in the church encompasses friendship, family and also fellowship as we are all united in one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God who is above us all, and through all, and in us all. A wonderful mystery manifested in the ordinary life of the church.
From Fergal, we have learnt the not-so-secret secret to happiness: A daily gratitude list. Reading poetry and meditation. And overcoming difficulties to make and nurture friendship. I wish him every happiness he can get even as I think there is more joy, more depth and height and width to be had.
Christians already know this but over the years have unlearnt it. Often looking to the world for the answer to the question, “What is the secret to happiness?”, not realising that it can be found in daily worship to thank God for His blessings, reading the Bible and meditate in His Word to find true peace and to build fellowship within the church as difficult as it can sometimes be.
This is the Daily Monsoon. I am your host, Terence, wishing you every happiness you can get in this world.