Don't Worry...Be Happy???

The other day in class, I heard someone make an interesting statement. We were discussing marriage and divorce, and I heard someone say that God wouldn't want me to be unhappy. While that probably isn't the exact statement, it captures the essence of what the person said. That got me to thinking. I wonder whether or not God wants us to be happy. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him. The cross is most definitely a symbol of pain and suffering. It was not a happy thing to be put on a cross. So, what does that mean? Does Jesus desire for us happiness? Or, is it something else?

Something to Ponder

He that is now a prince, wants to be a king or an emperor. A man in love with a girl is ever casting about how he may come to marry her, and in his eyes there is none fairer than she; when he has got her, he is soon weary of her, and thinks another more fair, whom easily he might have had. The poor man thinks, had I but twenty pounds I should be rich enough; but when he has got that, he would have more. The heart is inconsistent in all things, as the heathen says: Virtutem praesentem odimus, sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi. - Martin Luther