Dave’s Monday Blast – January 17, 2022
Harvard University just concluded an 80 year study revealing the “secret” to long-term happiness. It was called the Study of Adult Development. According to the director of the research project, “The clearest message that we get from this eighty-year study is this: GOOD RELATIONSHIPS keep us happier and healthier Period.” Then he clarifies, “It’s the quality of your close relationships that matters. Not the quantity.”
Although I agreed with their conclusion, the Harvard Study failed to include the most important component in arriving at their conclusion, (its absence does not change the findings, its inclusion further supports them). Fortunately we find the missing piece in a study published in the Journal for Scientific Study of Religion. Part of their discovery was this:: “Anxiety or a lack of certainty about one’s relationship with the divine represents a threat to psychological well-being.” Oswald Chambers better translates it this way, “There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill his purpose through your life.” WOW!
Why is this? Pastor Jim Denision comments: “The Biblical answer to our question is clear: God made us in His image (Genesis 1:26) for personal relationship with Himself (cf. Revelation 3:20). As the Westminster Shorter Catechism states, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever’. St. Augustine spoke for all of us when he said to God, ‘You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You’ (Confessions 1:1).”
Andrew Sullivan summarizes the core thesis of a new book called Stolen Focus by Johann Hari: “Create a throw-away consumeristic civilization, break families into ever smaller units, add a tech revolution, online addiction, economic precariousness, breakneck social change, endless work, and the collapse of religion and meaning, and yes, people will go a bit nuts. They’ll become depressed; they’ll seek out escapes through opiates or meth; they’ll disappear down rabbit holes of online fanaticism; they’ll seek meaning through work or fame; they’ll tear each other down with glee; they’ll lose the skills for family, friendship, constancy, discipline, and love.”
I don’t need to convince you that Johann paints a clear picture of a culture in crisis; a culture that is barreling down the road of history at break-neck speeds and the end thereof is destruction…unless…
Next week I want to continue this discussion with some incredible insight by Blaise Pascal (1623 – 62) – do some research on this INTENTIONAL man of God this week in preparation.
