Beyond Happy: Discovering Joy In Unexpected PlacesSample

## Introduction: Created for More Are you happy? The world tells us there are plenty of paths to happiness: earning a college degree, achieving career success, getting a new car, hitting your goal weight, marrying the perfect person, making a lot of money, buying your dream house. We can seemingly create our own happiness by pursuing and achieving these things and more. If we check off enough personal goals then we’ll be happy. Right? But if enough boxes aren’t checked (or if other people seem to be checking them off faster), it’s easy to get disappointed and frustrated. Not just with yourself, but with God. Like He isn’t coming through for you or He isn’t providing what you want or need to feel good. Even though you probably don’t believe all of this fully, some inward part reasons that by getting exactly what you want, you’ll truly be happy. But what if God didn’t design you for happiness? What if He designed you for joy? Happiness is about the search for “more” in life—more friends, more money, more acknowledgement, more power, etc. Joy is the discovery of an abundant life found in “less” focus on yourself and others—and more on Christ. Over the next few days, let’s explore what it looks like to live beyond happiness by finding joy in the unexpected corners of life. ### Things to Ponder: * What was the last thing that made you happy? What was the last thing that brought you joy? * What things have you looked for “more” of? * What in your life right now is preventing you from finding true joy?