“Happiness Runs…”
A Fire Communion Homily
by Reverend Charles Blustein Ortman
December 30, 2007
A few weeks ago at the Senior Lunch Bunch, those who came were asked to be prepared to share some element of their, or their family’s, traditions regarding the holidays. There was some very rich sharing by everyone present. Connie Mooney read to us from a book of radio essays entitled, “Today’s Good Word,” that was published back in the early 1950’s. Her grandmother, Ethel Baldwin Sutton, had been invited to broadcast an inspirational message each Sunday morning on radio station WFDF for folks who might not find their way into one of the local houses of worship in or near Flint, Michigan. Connie shared a very touching piece about Christmas, in which her grandmother had featured Connie and her brother. I asked if I could borrow the book, and in it I found the following transcript, “Happiness,” that I wanted to share with you today. It seems fitting that it should once again be read on a Sunday morning! I invite you to sit back and hear (read) her essay through the sensibility of 1953 radio…
“Happiness”
Someone suggested we use the word happiness as “today’s Good Word.” I can’t imagine my not having used it because we have so much to make us happy. Many of us sing when we are happy.
One little boy went to Sunday School for the first time and when he came home his mother asked him, “What did you do?” “Oh, everybody sang.” “What did you sing?” “Well I don’t know what the rest of them sang but I sang Casey Jones.” You see he was happy and it didn’t matter what the song – as long as he was happy enough to sing.
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. We have no more right to have happiness without producing it than to have wealth without producing it.
Some people confuse pleasure with happiness. Pleasure is something we buy, pay our money for and take. But happiness can never be sold like ice cream or candy; it can’t be bought with any amount of money – only we can make happiness for ourselves.
And I think we need to share our happiness too. We know that, “Two can’t live as cheap as one – But gee, they have a lot more fun.” Don’t they?
Yes the average family today has fun – lives better than the millionaire of the past century. We don’t have to be wealthy to enjoy the blessings of life; we can have them on an average income. And it must be a good thing that God provides our needs instead of our wants, because most of us know so little about what we want.
The office of our government is not to confer happiness upon us, but to give us opportunity to work out happiness for ourselves.
So if we ever find happiness by hunting for it, we may be surprised to find it just as the old lady did who lost her spectacles – safe on her own nose all the time.
You remember reading in the Bible how sometimes angels appeared and led people away from danger and perhaps death? Now of course we today… we see no white-winged angels – but – many times we are led away from things that could destroy us or cause us trouble and suffering.
But did you ever think that the hand to lead us could be that of a little child? The little son or daughter or grandchild in the home?
Yes our greatest happiness comes to us at our own firesides – with our families as we share the good things of life.
Those who bring sunshine and happiness to the lives of those about them cannot keep it away from themselves. This happiness is like a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
If we will only laugh and be pleasant the troubles of life will not seem so real. We can laugh away a mountain of trouble.
Jesus told of the faith that removes mountains, and surely cheerfulness in the face of trouble is an evidence of that wonder-working faith.
We have not fulfilled every duty to our God if we have not fulfilled that of being pleasant.
Remember that the great Christian graces, Faith, Hope and charity, are radiant with Happiness.
The early 1950’s style of writing not withstanding, Connie’s grandmother puts it pretty succinctly – happiness is not something we can find, but something we can make, “…only we can make happiness for ourselves.” Looking for happiness is hardly what we might spend our energies on. Like Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Making – creating happiness – especially as we do it for others, this is what creates happiness in our own lives. This is what makes the world go ‘round. This is what makes our worlds go ‘round.
Donovan Leach wrote the song, “Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion.”
Happiness runs in a circular motion
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea.
Everybody is a part of everything anyway,
You can have anything if you let yourself be.
Happiness runs, happiness runs.
Happiness runs, happiness runs.
Happiness runs, happiness runs.
Looking out into the New Year, I hope for you happiness: gratitude for the blessings that have been... letting go of what has not been, as well as what has been but has passed... living through the darkness of this winter season and of a world torn by violence and war... the courage to continue... the birth of a hope that sustains... the comfort of family and friends... the sense of continuity in time and space... the experience of unity with humanity and all that is... the beginning, yet again, with the growth of new light in the infancy of a New Year.
Looking out into the New Year, I wish you happiness: a life of centeredness, of caring, of sharing, of love, of faith and of hope. May you find yourself at home in the darkness and in the light, in gratitude and in generosity, in accepting what must be endured, and in the creation of what might yet be. I wish you happiness, love and an undying gratitude for this magnificent gift of life with which we have been blessed. It really is something!
Looking out into the New Year, I wish you happiness with the hope that this holiday season, has helped you to be able to appreciate and express your gratitude for the many blessings that come into your life. And among those blessings I hope that you might be able to count having found a faith community where we are accepted for who we are – without pretense, denial or shame. I hope that you might count having found a faith community where we are encouraged to grow our souls, to be engaged in the world, to do the work of justice, love kindness and walk humbly within our understandings of the holy. And I’m hoping we will all find a way to share what we have found here with others who are in search of just what it is that we have.
Looking out into the New Year, I wish you happiness. I wish you utter exhaustion in your attempts to create happiness for those around you and for this world, in such desperate need of love and happiness. And I wish you great satisfaction in that exhaustion. Looking out into the New Year, I wish you happiness.
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