Welcome to "Tuesday Morning"—A good read on any day of the week for Christians. Non-Christians are always welcome.

 

Meher Baba (1894-1969) was an Indian mystic and spiritual mentor to many. His quotes are legendary. Here is one that made it all the way into the lyrics of the 1989 Grammy Awards Song of the Year.

"Don't Worry—Be Happy"

 

The song, written and sung by Bobby McFerrin, was the first a cappella song to reach "number one" on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It didn't last very long on the chart. Had it not been used in a Hollywood motion picture, it might not be remembered at all. Here are the opening lyrics:

 

"Here is a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don't worry, be happy.

In every life we have some trouble,

When you worry you make it double.

Don't worry, be happy.

Don't worry, be happy now."

 

Did that bless your heart? It didn't bless mine, either. But it is a rather typical response of those who think from a secular point of view. Comedians have their own way of poking fun at serious subjects. George Burns once said, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family—in another city."

 

The pursuit of happiness is a serious subject. It is so serious that our nation's founders included it in our country's Declaration of Independence. It is a right enjoyed by all American citizens. It is also the theme of this week's "Tuesday Morning" epistle, which is attached below. Read on whenever you are ready to celebrate a piece of our national heritage.

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior Patriot

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Tom Barnard

 

 love misquotes. When I taught lower-division biblical literature courses in college I began each new semester with a true/false quiz—more for the fun of it than to determine just how much of the Bible the freshmen knew before taking the course. Each test had 20 questions. I used one set for the course in the Old Testament and another set for the course in the New Testament. My favorite true or false question (which nearly everyone got right) was this one:

 

“In the New Testament, the Epistles were the wives of the Apostles.”

 

Would it surprise you to know that during my sixteen years of teaching Freshmen Bible, only a handful of students got all twenty questions right in any quiz? (They probably were not from your denomination.)

 

If I were to tell you that the expression, “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” is an inalienable right guaranteed for all citizens by the Constitution of the United States, would that statement be true or false? If you said, “That’s a trick question,” you would be correct. You won’t find it in the Constitution, but you will find it in the Declaration of Independence. You knew that, didn’t you?

 

But if I were to ask you if “happiness” is an inalienable right guaranteed for all citizens of the United States by the Declaration of Independence, would your answer be yes or no? Another trick question. Happiness is not guaranteed to anyone. It is the pursuit of happiness that is our right as citizens.

 

According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, that phrase came from the writings of English philosopher John Locke, who said that “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” Thomas Jefferson, who was a primary writer of the Declaration, downplayed the idea of government in protecting health and possessions—limiting that protection to the pursuit of happiness.

 

In an 1883 U.S. Supreme Court opinion written by Associate Justice Samuel Freeman Miller, the court ruled as follows:

 

“Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment.”

 

Jefferson never intended that happiness, in itself, should be an inalienable right—only that its pursuit within legal parameters should be. Happiness is ours for the pursuing, the seeking, and the winning. It is not a right that all citizens be happy.  As someone has said, “Happiness is the result, the product, of endeavor.” It was never intended to be free.

 

I like these words from Josiah Quincy, President of Harvard College, 1829-1845:

 

“Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom; freedom none but virtue; virtue none but knowledge; and neither freedom, virtue, nor knowledge has any vigor or immortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the Christian religion.”

 

And these words of Lucille R. Taylor are equally powerful:

 

“All the world is searching for joy and happiness, but these cannot be purchased for any price in any market-place, because they are virtues that come from within, and like rare jewels must be polished, for they shine brightest in the light of faith, and in the services of brotherly love.”

 

And if you are one that prefers reading about happiness in Scripture, here is Psalm 144:15 (NLT):

 

“Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord.”