We Have No Right To Happiness

Lewis argues that humans have no right to pursue happiness unrestricted. He says that the we have the right to pursue happiness as long as it is lawful and moral. I agree with this because really we have no right at all to be happy. We are fallen creatures who have broken God's commands and by all rights should be being punished.

Grace is what keeps us alive, God's grace; getting what we don't deserve. Every day that we have here on earth is another gift of grace from God. I know that idea has been beaten into our heads since we we're young and has long since lost it's power but i haven't recognized how true it was until i tried to argue that we did have a right to happiness.

In the garden of Eden Adam and Eve were happy, at least I imagine they were, it would be rather hard not to be. But this was God's intention that we be happy and joyful I believe, between which, there is a distinction. To quote my favourite author, Tolkien, from The Lord Of The Rings, ''Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by it's maker. In which case you were also meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.'' Bilbo and therefore Frodo had no right to possess the Ring but it came to them any way because of a greater Power (explained in the Simarillion) that had good intentions.

We are intended to be happy and joyful but we are not often either or, rarer still, both. You may be wondering how I can claim joy to be separable from happiness. And true often when you are joyful, happiness coincides. But think of the persecuted christian. I most certainly would not be happy in that situation but through Christ, and knowing that I was suffering for his Name, I would be able to find joy.