I once heard someone say, "I'd rather be happy than right."  While I can't remember who said it or in what context, it stuck with me.  I've seen too many arguments between people who were both equally convinced they were right and the other person was completely wrong.  Even if one of them happens to be right, I doubt there would be much happiness in the relationship between the two of them.

If the secret to happiness were a single or several verses in the Bible, then I believe there would be a lot more happy people in this world.  However, the opposite is true.  I see people from all walks of life, rich and poor alike who are and are not happy.  The "secret" isn't the presence or absence of money.  We all know that, and so I conclude we've missed something somewhere along the way in the pursuit of happiness.

In truth, I believe the real secret to happiness is no secret at all.  Being happy is just plain common sense and so obvious, that I believe there was no need to write it down in the form of instruction.  Happiness just happens, if the right elements are in place.

Look at a child playing.  Are they happy?  Has anyone instructed them in such a way as "First, do this.  Second, do that.  Third, you must . . ." and so on?  Nope.  Children play.  In case you haven't noticed before, as soon as adults interfere with rules and things, it kind of kills the fun the kids were having.  Even without real toys, children find creative ways to play.

Just last week after I unpacked a box, there were these long pieces of styrofoam left over on the floor.  Within minutes, these had been commandeered by my two little girls who had placed small toy animals in all the little crevices and were pushing them down the hallway.  When I asked what they were doing, they explained to me that the animals were on a cruise.  Huh?  Styrofoam packing boards as cruise ships?  Yet, there they were, playing away, and quite happy.  No rules.  No instructions.  Just living from their hearts and imaginations.

As we grow into adults, we are actually taught to do the opposite of the very thing God programmed into us.  We are taught to ignore the pleadings and desires of our hearts, and we are taught to follow rules, be responsible, and above all, ignore the imaginations and pleadings of your heart.

Without Christ in your life, maybe this is actually pretty good advice.  However, as Christians, God has said that if we will delight in Him, then He will give us the desires of our HEART. (Psalm 37:4)  Problem is, there is too much "Bible teaching" that you must do this and do that, wear this not that, act this way not that way, and then maybe, just maybe, God will be pleased with you and bless you.

That's all backwards!  God wants us to delight in Him, recognize our kinship and relationship with Him, and as His children, our hearts desires will be fulfilled.

As a child lives from their heart and finds happiness in the discarded things of life, so we may as Christians find happiness living from our hearts.  Not the heart of the old flesh that is "deceitful and desperately wicked" or the "heart of stone" that was part of the old man, but out of our new heart; the new heart God has given us to replace the heart of stone. (Eze 36:26)  The heart God gave us when we were born again is not "deceitful and desperately wicked" but rather a new heart.  Our new heart is a treasure to be guarded (Prov. 4:23) as something precious and valuable, because out of that new heart we may live a happy life.

The secret to happiness then, is to follow that new heart.

If time and money were no object, what would you do?  First, discard the temporal things that may spring to mind like buying a new car, a new house, or traveling somewhere (that's the old heart speaking); for these are temporary.  In your new heart, when you were born again, you were given a desire to do something special, something that would make the world a better place, something that would help others.  If you could do anything in the world, when your new heart speaks, what is it you hear?

When we listen to the new heart God has given us, and begin to live in a way that fulfills the desires of that new heart, we not only find purpose and meaning in life, we find happiness.  As a child finds happiness in discarded things that would be thrown away simply by following their own heart, so we as adults can find happiness in this life by following the desires of our new hearts.  What are the desires of your new heart?

I woke up Friday, still feeling worn out from a very long road trip that saw me crossing into six states outside of Alabama.  I started my day like everyone else I suppose, but it was hectic and busy.  A news alert crossed my phone.  Something about a shooting.  I swiped it away and continued working.  Dove into the batch of folders that needed my attention and began working on numbers for job quotes.  My phone kept buzzing with the same alert.  The words I recognized were "Conn." (for Connecticut) and "shooting" as in someone somewhere had apparently shot a gun, probably at someone.  I swiped the news alert away again.

Over and over again this same news alert kept popping up.  "Shooting" "Conn." were there with each alert that kept coming and I began to get annoyed.  I remember thinking to myself "Enough already!  I get it!  There's been a shooting!"  I made a mental note to myself to see if there were some way to reconfigure my phone to somehow reject incoming news alerts that repeated themselves over and over again.  Toward the end of my day, still busy trying to get things wrapped up, and laying aside those things that would have to be done later, my mind began to focus on the clock.  Soon as work was over I had to grab something quick to eat and leave to my second job.

My wife was out and about, so I called to see where she was and reminded her that I had to leave for my other job soon.  She said she'd bring in some fast-food.  Soon as she came home I grabbed a couple of the heavier bags of groceries and then began to eat while my wife and the girls unloaded the rest of the car.  My phone buzzed again, glancing at it I just saw the two words I've been noticing all day and swiped it away again.  I jumped in my car and barely made it to my second job on time.  Things there were already hectic, so I jumped right in and began working.

My phone kept buzzing still.

After work that night, I drove home physically and mentally just spent.  All I wanted was my nice cozy chair, something warm to eat and drink, and just to be around my family.  My wife had allowed the girls to stay up late so I could be there to tuck them in and kiss them goodnight.  As I walked in the front door, the girls were in the back room playing and my wife was glued to the news on TV.  "Not like her to say nothing when I walk in the door," I thought to myself.  "Is she mad at me or something?"

"Hey there!  I'm home," I said testing the waters.  "Glad you're home safe," my wife replied. "I've just now been able to watch the news about the shooting.  I had to send the girls out of the room for a while so I could get the latest details."  My response was to simply shrug it off and go to the refrigerator to see if there was anything leftover I could warm up and eat.  "So there's been another shooting.  Another idiot with a gun in Connecticut.  Why is this news?  I've been getting the alerts all day!"

That's when my wife unfolded the story for me as I sat next to her to watch the news.  The real tragedy was not of another random shooting, but the killing of innocents.  The stories of the first responders trained to handle horrific sights walking away shaken to their core.  The flurry of activity as parents flooded the scene, some tightly hugging their children close to their chest as they walked away from the school.  Some being sent to a volunteer firehouse to get the news they would never hold their children alive again.  My daughters are 5 and 9 years old.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  For the first time in my life I cried as I watched the news.  Putting my children to bed that night was a very sobering, purposeful, and thankful moment.

Now, the story had my attention.  All day long it had the attention of most of the nation and even the world.  This morning I saw pictures of Pakistani children making a candlelight memorial for the slain children in America, and another of a row of black crosses on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The inevitable question of "why" comes to everyone's mind.  To others, they will ask the same question of God; some with words of pleading and a desire to understand, some others with hate and disgust that a loving God could allow such a thing, if there was ever such a thing as God.

First, I will not pretend to know the mind of God.  Second, I truly believe God could have stopped and intervened if He had chosen to do so.  Why this event was allowed to unfold, I do not pretend to know, but there are two things I do know.  First, there is evil in this world, and that evil manifests itself in the hearts of men with the free will to choose to do good or evil.  Second, there was another great tragedy over 2,000 years ago.  One that God in heaven not only allowed to happen, but chose to look away.  As Jesus Christ hung on the cross, He too, cried out the word "why" and not just to the wind or the sky, but to his own Father in heaven.

Many people died by Roman crucifixion, but today the world only remembers the name of one of them.  It was a horrific act of great torture and suffering, a terrible sacrifice of One who was totally innocent, but it has arrested the attention of the world for over 2,000 years now.  Again, I do not pretend to have answers as to why God allowed the slaying of innocents in Connecticut, but I do know that it reminded me of One other innocent who died to save the souls of all mankind, and that we will be celebrating His birth around this time of year.  The birth of One, born to die.

My first introduction to leadership, what it is, what it isn't, and how it affects people and situations around the world came through several books I read by John Maxwell.  I have read many other authors since then, but a couple of my favorites by John Maxwell are "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" and "Becoming a Person of Influence."  Both are worth a read by anyone in any walk of life, not just current or aspiring leaders.  I greatly appreciated his well researched insights into the world of leaders and leadership, and his own experiences and knowledge bridged a large gap in my life about my own expectations of good leaders, and enabled me to spot the bad ones even easier.

Still, being a "big name" leader is not something everyone is cut out to be.  In truth, there are many people who simply desire good leadership in their lives.  They have talents and abilities they want to put to good use, but they also want to know there is a good and noble purpose behind the motivations of the person in front leading the way.  In short, whether we realize it or not, when people seek to contribute of themselves to a cause, they are really contributing to a purpose, a leader if you will, and there are expectations of the leader that must be met.

Working two jobs now, that idea really came to the fore in my second job.  By day, I pretty much interact with professional people.  They may rank high or low in the scales of society, but by and large they are business people with a very clear vision and focus of how personal interactions can affect profit and loss, and they are always keenly aware of the value of each dollar they spend.  Whether their business is big or small, the people I usually deal with are usually very cautious about making any kind of decision, and their actions and decisions usually unfold over time.  It is rare that even a very good decision is made in a moment.

However, in my other job, I deal consistently with entry level employees who are still cutting their teeth in working for a living.  Over half the people I work with are under 25 years old, and at least two or three are still in high school.  They are full of energy and usually a blur of motion going from one task to the next, but with that speed of action there is a cost in the process of thought, and sometimes relationships pay a price.  To be thrown into this mix from my day job can be quite disorienting on a mental level, and finding myself under the charge of someone who loses their cool when things go haywire is not something I was expecting to handle.

That is when a truth of leadership struck me that I have only read about before, but only now had a chance to actually experience.  The positional leader in a situation is not necessarily the real leader.  Keep in mind, we all have expectations of our leaders, and when a leader fails to meet our expectations, the opportunity for the real leader to step forward arises.  During a moment of momentary crisis, the positional leader in the room lost his cool.  His temper showed, words were exchanged, frustrations were physically evident, and tension filled the room to the brink of explosion.  It was at that very moment that a very firm, very calm voice took over the room.  The voice was not loud, but it immediately commanded respect, and within seconds order was restored, decisive action was taken, the tension died, and the crisis was averted.

Later, the particulars of the situation were worked out between individuals, and new ways of handling things were set in order to be sure such a crisis never happened again.  Through it all, I learned who the real leader was in that moment.  The leader was not the "person in charge" everyone took orders from, the leader was the one who fulfilled the expectations of leadership by everyone in the room.  Wherever you happen to be in life, whether you are "in charge" or not is not what matters.  Just think for a moment what expectations you have of people in leadership positions over you.  Are they meeting them?  If not, chances are, you don't really see them as much of a leader.  Who is meeting your expectations of leadership in the different areas of your life; at church, at work, at home?  As a man, are you meeting the expectations of those you seek to lead?