Religion: A Pastor Ponders

The price of happiness

by Pastor William Jenkins

April 22, 2006

Today was the most exciting day of Carol’s life. She was being promoted to the position of vice-president. No other woman had achieved so high a position in her company. Her hard work had finally paid off. And her salary would be one and a half times larger. She tried to think of everything she could do with the extra money. She had never felt happier in her life.

A month later, though, Carol felt terribly down. Something seemed to be missing. She was able to handle the added responsibility of her promotion, and the larger paycheck had begun.

But the position and money wasn’t making her as happy as she hoped. And Joyce was on her mind a lot lately. Joyce was a talented co-worker whom she had criticized unjustly to her boss, making sure she would not interfere with her own move up the corporate ladder.

In I Timothy 6, the apostle Paul reminds us that money can never bring happiness. If anything, the drive to succeed financially may have just the opposite effect. People striving for wealth and prestige often lose their sense of right and wrong.

Relationships suffer with co-workers, friends, relatives, even close family members; they may even lose respect for themselves by their actions to succeed. For some, financial success is the first step toward ruin.

Business promotions and higher salaries are good as a measure of achievement, but they are not the secret of happiness. What is more important is being content in any and all circumstances. If you can’t be happy with what you have, you will never be happy with more.

True joy arises from within a person; it cannot be attached on the outside by more of anything. One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

Ponder this as the price for happiness.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org