We are often so much concerned about the appearance of happiness, as never to cast one thought toward the reality of it. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The fallen human soul is far more concerned with appearances of most things rather than the reality of them. The fallen human soul would rather appear humble before others than to truly have humility. The concern of many at social gatherings is to appear happy and jolly, yet the reality is far from that. It could be considered a lie when we represent ourselves to others as one thing when it is not true of us. It could also be said that a person finds a short moment of happiness is making others think that s/he is happy when in a social setting. This, of course, reaches to the heart of true Christianity as well.
People want to be thought of as happy or at least pleased in attending prayer meetings and other religious activities. It would not be a good thing if others think that “I” am unhappy in attending to my religious activities. Fallen human nature wants to be thought of as happy in what it is supposed to enjoy doing, not to mention happy in doing religious things because we are commanded to love God with all of our being and even commanded to rejoice in Him several times. But again, this gets at an essential part of human corruption in wanting to appear a certain and acceptable way before others. In a very real sense a person that wants to appear happy when s/he is not is much the same as a person that prays with certain methods in order to appear a certain way, or a person that gives money for the appearance or even a person that does his or her fasting in order to appear a certain way before others. It is all from the same root of hypocrisy.
The whole issue of wanting to appear a certain way before other human beings comes from a desire to receive honor or to be thought of in a certain way, though it can also come from a desire to think of self in a certain way as well. Striving to appear happy (as opposed to have real happiness) before others can be a desire for others to think of “me” as happy or it can be me wanting to appear happy in order to make me happy. It can also be both the desire to appear happy to others and to be happy in wanting to appear happy.
In the modern world Robert Schuller and John Piper have written a lot on the subject of happiness and joy, so in certain circles it is thought to be spiritual to have great joy. This just exasperates the problem and so people think they are spiritual when they have joy and as such they desire to have joy in order to convince themselves and/or others that they are spiritual. Once again, however, people desire to appear to have joy rather than to seek true joy itself. It is so easy to convince self that it has joy when it is always trying to give the appearance of it to others.
It is nothing but pride and self in the heart that can desire to appear something before others and not have the reality of it. Why would a person want to appear as happy before others and yet desire that appearance more than the reality of having that happiness? It can be nothing but pride in appearances before others and perhaps worse than that it can be pride in spiritual appearances. What a horrible thing it is to want to appear happy in the things of Christ when one does not really desire Christ. It is Christ alone by His Spirit that can bring true joy into the soul. All else is nothing but pseudo-joy or a fleeting appearance of it. So the desire to just appear happy rather than have true happiness is in reality the act of a proud heart that desires to be its own source of joy and happiness. It is rebellion against God in that man wants to obtain for self what God alone can give.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment