The Pursuit of Happiness

Benjamin Franklin said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” I don’t know if beer is necessarily the proof, but Ben was on to something with his zippy proverb, something that a few of us have been slow to recognize: Yes, God really wants us to be happy.

More and more, I am convinced that learning how to be happy is a large part of redemption, not that happiness was a virtue espoused within my religious upbringing. On the contrary, heavy-hearted guilt was the de facto emotion of choice – along with hulking doses of shame, emotional anguish, and the deprivation of anything that resembled enjoyment.

It was as if happiness was forbidden, as if a person of faith did not deserve joy, as if it were a mortal sin should someone get caught with a smile on his or…