The Pursuit of Happiness

Series: Breakout
June 8, 2008

I was born in the states and grew up under the revolutionary document call the Declaration of Independence. This document states that all men (they caught on to slaves and women later) are created equal, and all of us are endowed by our creator with certain rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That’s a fascinating declaration. You have the right to life and we can create a government where that can largely be enforced. We’ll argue a bit about when life begins and ends, does we ever have the right to take a life in between, but for the most part, we can enforce this. You also have the right to liberty, unless you’re a slave or a woman, but give it some time. So don’t take someone’s life, pay your taxes, and you’ll basically be free. Great enlightenment ideals, great biblical ideals. Then we have this third piece- you have the right to happiness. Well, not really. We can’t make you the promise of happiness, but we offer you this- the right to pursue your happiness. Don’t take a life, don’t take anyone’s liberty, and you’ll be free to pursue happiness. Basically we can say that the American experiment is basically the unfettered, unrelenting chasing after a dream- happiness.

So America must be the happiest place on earth, right? Well, I actually have no idea, but I do know this, on the website, the pursuit of happiness.org, America is not number 1. It’s not even in the top ten. But do you want to know who is? Yeah baby, you got it- Canada. We just barely made it in, by the skin of our teeth! Number 10.

Listen to the sermon at www.connectionschurch.ca or read the whole sermon at cccsermons.blogspot.com