Our relationship to other people is as vital to our happiness as is our relationship to man.
We all want what comes from having a pure heart: happiness. But how many of us are willing to go through the painful process of change that makes it possible to be happy in an unhappy world? We must marvel at the genius of Jesus’ principles of happiness. Here are precise steps with predictable results guaranteed by God to produce genuine, lasting happiness.
Being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, and hunger for righteousness deal with man’s relationship with God; mercy, purity, peacemaking and persecution deal with man’s relationship to man.
The message? Happiness has a horizontal dimension as well as a vertical dimension. We can’t say, I love God, and not love other people. It doesn’t work.
This is quite a challenge. After all, God is easy to love; He’s perfect in every way. But the jerk next door, or the boss down the hall, or the secretary across the aisle they’re a different story!
In January we make a New Year’s resolution: “I will be more understanding of others.” In March we scratch that out and write, “I will try to be more patient when dealing with the incompetent people that surround me.” By June we scratch that out and settle for “I will not slap anyone in the face first thing in the morning.”
Source: Being Happy in an Unhappy World
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