honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 17, 2004

EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Happiness is in soul, not belly

By Rick Stinton

It was an idea given birth in a moment of marketing genius: the McDonald's Happy Meal! You see, you're not just buying a burger, fries, a drink and a shiny plastic toy — you're buying happiness. No wonder McDonald's has sold billions of them. Everyone, especially parents, wants to be happy.

One of the truly amazing marvels of life is children's uncanny ability to scope out the golden arches. Maybe kids can feel the happy vibes.

Having raised four little McNugget eaters, I have more than my fair share of experience with Happy Meals. I have observed though, that there are a couple of problems with these popular entrées.

First, they are temporary. The happy wears off. The only lasting happiness provided by Happy Meals is at McDonald's corporate headquarters. Ever wonder why Ronald McDonald wears such a huge grin? Fifty billion Happy Meals, that's why.

The problem with Happy Meals is that they are peripheral. They do not touch us at the core of our being or meet our deepest needs. No child ever says, "Remember that lunch? Wow, what lasting fulfillment and joy I discovered. It changed my life forever."

Happy Meals are a symbol of our day, something for which we seem to develop an early craving. Our very Declaration of Independence alludes inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of Happy Meals.

We outgrow the McNuggets and Beanie Babies, but the "happy meal" ideal just gets more sophisticated, and more expensive. Advertisements bombard us with all sorts of commodities, packaged with happiness. Marketing gurus relentlessly try to persuade us that we could never be truly happy without them. But name the commodity, and it will prove to be like the original Happy Meal: temporary and peripheral, incapable of producing lasting fulfillment.

In a society with a vigorous appetite for Happy Meals, Jesus calls people to something far more significant: a life of permanent value and lasting fulfillment. In a word, he invites people to a life of blessing. Jesus offers a deep and abiding joy. He gives a joyfulness that transcends any given circumstances. Jesus desires to enrich our lives at the core of our being — our personhood, and our relationships with God and with other people. He deals with the core realities of life, which are of permanent value. Indeed, because of his resurrection, they are of eternal value.

Jesus casts a vision of the life of blessing in the introductory movement of his greatest discourse, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12). The life of blessing to which he beckons us is well worth investigating. It is a life beyond Happy Meals.

Rick Stinton is president of International College and Graduate School, an interdenominational Bible college and seminary in Honolulu.

Expressions of Faith welcomes written works about faith and spirituality. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.