Why do you do the things you do everyday? 

Go to work? Working on a degree? Investing in this or that stock or business?

In the flow chart diagramming any set of these types of questions, the end result is usually the same. We do things because we believe they will make us happy. It is a shortcut in logic that we can usually find in the first few chapters of any introduction to philosophy. Our choices are determined by a disposition toward happiness. 

Have you ever stopped to think, "Why does God do the things that God does?" Why create the world? Why give the 10 Commandments? The prophets? Why incarnate as Jesus and participate in our suffering? 

Not unlike us, God's actions are aimed at God's purpose, which also seems to be happiness. It pleases God to create, to guide, to give all of God's self away, to all of creation, and especially to us. 

The most clear articulation of God's loving purpose is found in this weekend's scripture. The famous phrase from the Gospel of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" It is likely that more than once, you've seen "John 3:16" on a sign at a football game or public event. It is a common short-hand tag line of Christianity's mission and purpose. 

Whenever I teach the students preparing for Confirmation about this phrase from the Bible, I go one step further to summarize the mission and purpose of Christianity. It basically means, "God wants you to be happy."

When I have the opportunity, I expand on this brief summarization by setting some parameters around what the statement means. No, my ultimate happiness is not found in God giving me a Mercedes Benz. No, my ultimate happiness is not found in being elected to a political office or enjoy the pride of popularity. My happiness, any human being's happiness, is found in our profound and ultimate unity with God. In astonishing mutuality, God's happiness is also found through a profound and ultimate unity with us. 

God models a relationship with us of total, self-giving love. That's what the words "For God so love the world..." imply. God is in love with us! We participate in God-likeness when we also fall in love and respond in love to the people and things within God's creation. 

So let's continue to use this time of Lent to reflect and ask ourselves, "Why do we do the things we do?" If it isn't out of love and leading us to greater love of God and others, perhaps we can easily diagnose what is keeping us from being happy. And where we can discover how our work, our actions, our possessions, and our relationships are leading us to greater love of God, of self, and of neighbor, perhaps we can invest in these with greater abandon. For being fully ensconced in the activity of love will always result in our complete and lasting happiness - life eternal. 

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