The Table Video

James Houston (Regent College) explains the difference between happiness and blessedness. “Happiness is a rather shallow term…” he says. Bob Dylan once said, “Happy is a yuppy word.” Jim would probably agree. Music: “You Won’t Believe Me,” Brian Lee and His Orchestra (brianleehisorchestra.bandcamp.com/)

Transcript:

Well, I think happiness is a rather shallow term for what it should be for the Christian, which is blessedness. And the difference between happiness is that which is in the social world of humans with humans. It’s a kind of thing that enables the Tibetans and Bhutan to have not the GNP, but the index of happiness for their citizens. That’s, to me, what in our culture happiness is. A sense of well-being, a sense of being at peace with each other.

But it’s kind of the efficacy of socialization. But blessedness is far richer and far deeper because blessedness means that I’m blessed as I’m being transformed by the way of life that the Beatitudes define. And so when we read the Beatitudes, we have much more a series of indicators of what is truly a blessed life. So we, all of us can have unhappiness and suffering. We can have unhappiness in living in a sinful world. But blessedness is transcendent. It speaks of another kingdom. It speaks of another realm. It speaks of the heavenly life.