Happy-Happy

I was in a grocery store today and a woman lamented, “No happy customers today.”  I looked at her and said, “I’m happy!”  She didn’t smile and responded, “Happy happy?”  Guessing what she meant, I said, “I’m pretty happy.”  She didn’t look convinced.

What did she mean?  Was she talking about a whistling, sunny happy that says, “nothing in this world will bring me down today?”  I don’t know if there are many of us with that feeling after the Governor’s order to shut down businesses.  A lot of people are putting on the happy face but deep down--something else is churning.  If I had to guess it’s maybe fear, anger, despair, or sadness. 

As I drove away from that very busy store, I wondered what I was really feeling.  I wasn’t sure.  This virus closure may last a month or a year or anything in between.  We don’t know.  There is much we don’t know about the virus or our attempt to slow it down.  The thing is--much in this worldly life is uncertain.  It always has been.  As I searched my heart it dawned on me there is at least one thing I know for sure.  Christ dwells within me.  The apostle Paul wrote, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.“  (Eph. 2:8 NIVO)

The truth for those with faith in Christ is that deep down, there is always a seed of hope in us.  Maybe it is obscured sometimes by the hard shell of events--but the hope remains as surely as Christ remains.  If we nurture that hope it will blossom to the glory of God.  I sure wish I could see that woman again to tell her, “Yes, I am happy-happy.”