Everything is Always Over

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…” (Philippians 3:13,14).  

To never be unhappy for more than an hour at a time!  Does that idea intrigue you?  The late Channing Pollock, dramatist and essayist, once wrote that at no time in his life had he ever been unhappy for more than an hour at any one time.  Frankly, I’m not sure I could say that. 

A minister once read Pollock’s claim and promptly inquired, “How have you achieved this rare mental state?”  Pollock thoughtfully responded, jotting down every reason he could find for his happiness, and then, finally, he reduced his reasons to the two most important principles he knew for happiness.  So intrigued was he with his premise that he wrote a book about it entitled, The Adventures of a Happy Man. 

In his book, Pollock honestly admitted that he had plenty of reasons for misery and unhappiness–valid reasons which burst the bubble of happiness for most folks.  He told how he had known poverty, hunger, discouragement, and affliction.  In the process he learned a very powerful lesson consisting of four words which became the backbone of his life.  And what were they?  “Thank God for Friday?”  No!  It was, “Everything is always over!”  There is a period, eventually, to whatever bothers you.  That truth, coupled with reflections on the good things of life, the many blessings which God sends our way, changed Pollock’s life. 

He wrote, “The truth is that most of us are unhappy about nothing, through envy or emptiness, or concentration upon small things, or failure to apprehend and appreciate the joys all around us.  Most of our ills come from blaming someone else, and expecting someone else to help.  The first essential to happiness is the ability to examine yourself and say, ‘That’s what I ought to do.’ Happiness is attainable under most any condition in which the majority of us are likely to find ourselves.” 

Interested in understanding what Pollock says in those four words?  You can.  Guideline #1:  Realize that happiness is an attitude, a disposition of your mind, not a goal or a destination.  When you say, “If I just had [anything you name], I would be happy,” you haven’t discovered that happiness comes from within, not without. 

Guideline #2:  Choose happiness.  This requires two things:  dealing with the unpleasant past–remember, “Everything is always over!”–and focusing on the present, “This one thing I do,” as Paul put it. We live in a broken, imperfect world. People disappoint you.  Relationships fail.  Marriages may not come up to expectations. Banks go broke.  At the personal level, we fail as well.  We fall short of our own expectations, to say nothing of falling short of God’s.  But the past has to be dealt with by finding God’s forgiveness and forgiving ourselves and others.  Then, forget it. 

 Paul put it graphically when he wrote, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…” (Philippians 3:13,14).  Forget loss, focus on gain.  Again, Paul wrote that you can bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ (See 2 Corinthians 10:5). 

Guideline #3:  Realize that the problems of life are temporary.  That’s what Pollock was driving at.  In reading Scripture, you will find a phrase often repeated, “And it came to pass…”  It was that which gave me the inspiration to put a message in the boot-up program of my computer which said, “Remember, this too shall pass.”  The birthday candles don’t stay lighted forever. Thank God everything is always over. 

Resource reading: Romans 8:28-39.