When will you be happy? I remember thinking that I would be happy when I bought my very first car. It was just a junker though, so as soon as I could afford it I bought an even better one – now that was one awesome car! But then it lost its luster when it started getting dented and scratched and finally wrecked. It’s in the junk yard now dreaming of the good ol’ days driving down country roads listening to eight track tapes.

Many people want to be happy, to be fulfilled, and they think they can achieve it by having the right things or maybe having the right relationship, or perhaps having the right job. But what they find is that these things disappoint. Toys get boring, people let us down, and the job is filled with stress.

The answer is found in a paradox. God made us so that we are most filled when we empty ourselves; when we give ourselves away. It follows then that we are most unhappy when we try to be selfish; when everything is about us and we try to be the center of our own lives.

This is an important secret to living a fulfilled and beautiful life. The Lord gives His own life as an example. “I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) When we understand the meaning of this principle and apply it to our lives, we become a blessing to everyone around us.

Our thought, then, is not what we can get, or how we will profit, or what comfort we will receive, or what good in any form can we get from others. Instead, it is in what we can give to those around us. That is love; and since God is love, there is the fulfillment of godliness in it. To be like Christ is not to consider what we may receive from others, but what we can give to them, what good we can do for them. We will want to bring healing and never hurting to anyone.

Many people spend much effort in making sure no one wrongs them and that they receive attention from others. But this human striving is rooted in emptiness. When we seek to give happiness and fulfillment to others, we are spared the trouble of selfishness. The highest place in Christ is found in serving and in bringing joy and in giving life. This brings satisfaction and sweetness that can never be found in any other way.