Could You Be Happy Without God?
Psalm 63
“Could you be happy without God?” This question was first introduced to me in a book by Christian author John Eldridge. He is an outdoors man who loves to fish, hike and get close to nature. At one point in his life, he was out West on a trout stream in a lovely little valley. There was beauty in the hills, the forest, the stream. There was solitude away from the hustle and bustle of life. The fishing was good. Everything seemed perfect. Why couldn’t he just stay here and enjoy this for the rest of his life? But as he was drinking in all the happiness of the moment, he realized that he had made a terrible omission. God was not even in his thoughts. And the question hit him like the proverbial “slap in the face”: Could I be happy without God?
This is a solemn question.
This is actually the question of life.
This is the question to which the world tries its best to get you to answer “Yes!”
If you don’t think you could answer “yes” to this question, put yourself in a place such as Eldridge was - a place where you are perfectly content doing something which you absolutely love to do. What is it for you? Fishing (like Eldridge)? Shop for antiques? Play golf? Watch movies? Shoot guns? Read novels? Go birding? Bake? Tend your garden? Travel? Decorate your home? Collect coins? Listen to music? Play music? Woodworking? Binge watch your favorite show? Play video games? Restore that old Plymouth? Watch sports? Play sports? Doom scroll?
When you were engaged in your favorite pursuit, did you ever have the thought, like Eldridge, that you just wished you could do this for the rest of your life? Be careful. The devil knows how to entice us. He knows our weaknesses.
The Psalmist has a different focus: “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
So, could you be happy without God?
><> Jeff
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