It troubles me that God has so often been portrayed as looking down with disapproval on the things that give us pleasure. Over the centuries the theatre, music and above all sex have been frowned on by the Church. Eating chocolate, or a cream cake, is not simply unhealthy – it is "wicked" or "naughty".

I think the idea of giving up something we enjoy for Lent is connected with this. Somehow, subconsciously, we imagine that denying ourselves pleasure will bring us closer to God. However I suggest that instead of denying ourselves something we enjoy we should rather make a deliberate point of searching out and seeking what makes us happy. For surely when we come nearer to the source of true happiness then we are getting closer to God, ‘the author and giver of all good things’. God doesn’t want us to be miserable!

I don’t mean we ought to eat more chocolate or drink more alcohol! The pleasure they offer is fleeting and we pay for it afterwards. The idea that they can make us happy is an illusion.

The same illusion applies to wealth. We know from surveys across the world that when people reach a certain level of wealth (a global figure of around $10,000 a year) their reported happiness reaches a plateau. After that no matter how much more money people may have, it does not make them any happier.

Advertising and fashion conspire to make us believe that only this or that product or possession can make us happy. But that too is an illusion. And ultimately it makes us all dissatisfied: those who have not are dissatisfied because they envy those who have; and those who have are dissatisfied because what they have has failed to bring the promised happiness.

So what does make us happy?

It seems to me that it is not what we have that makes us happy, but how we perceive what we have. I don’t just mean the cup which is either half empty or half full according to how you look at it. Rather it is to do with seeing everything as a gift. My wife could go and buy herself the most expensive and beautiful ring (I am speaking hypothetically here!) but it would never mean as much as her engagement and wedding rings. What is given to us as a gift means more to us than anything we can earn or buy. Gifts are all the more precious to us because of the love they symbolise and the relationship we have with the one who gave them to us.

If we see the world around us, the people we love and who love us, our very life itself as gifts from God, then the whole of life will mean more to us and will become for us the source of great thankfulness. And the more we offer our thanks to God the more we will discover our true happiness in the love of him who gives so generously to us. And the happier we become in response to God’s love the more we will deny ourselves and come closer to him.

It is that kind of self-denial we are called to in Lent; an abandonment of self in thankfulness to God for every good thing. Seek out the things in life which bring you real happiness; give time to them, enjoy them, and give thanks to God every moment of each day. And if, as we approach Good Friday, we glimpse the cost of God’s generosity, then give thanks all the more for that revelation of the depths of his love for us.

A.R.T.