This is the last of a 3-part post from a recent sermon I preached at Avondale UMC called "Make Me Happy!" about deciding what your attitude toward life will be. I hope you have been blessed and perhaps inspired by the reading of it. B. =8- )

The third thing is to spread the happy around. The good news is that this is incredibly easy to do. Here is an article that was printed in the Times Union just last week – it says “Upbeat is tough to beat.” Apparently, happiness spreads faster and farther than we ever thought. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal followed more than 4,700 people over a 20-year period and found that people who are happy tend to rub off on the people around them, including friends, families, co-workers and neighbors. When one person was happy the chances that people they deal with regularly would become happy went up between 8 and 34% and a ripple effect followed that. Those influenced by a happy person influenced an average of three other people down the line although the ripple effect does begin to lessen as it spreads. The article says that if you’re looking for a gift that keeps on giving be a happier person and you’ll be passing on a blessing that spreads like a smile. I have always liked to watch the effect that being upbeat has on other people. It’s a fun little game you can play – whenever you are out doing your errands and you run across a grumpy, frowny person be extra nice and pleasant to them. It almost never fails that they will do a complete turnaround, it’s kind of a power trip, actually. At the very least it will stop them short because it’s so unexpected. We are so used to returning grouchiness with grouchiness. The “Random act of kindness” thing may seem a little trite but it really does work, especially when you return kindness for grumpiness. Happiness is more contagious than measles.

So what is it going to be with you? Will you settle for Cal’s brand of happiness? Will you just be “happy enough” – not giving much, not getting much, not expecting much? Or will you go for the gusto and make the effort to find joyful satisfaction in being who you are, who God intended for you to be? Fr. Powell suggests that a special piece of God’s truth has been given to each one of us and that the path to attaining that joyful satisfaction lies in sharing that truth with those around us.

In Psalm 16, David shows us how it is done. He writes:

1 Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
3 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.
5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
11 You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

That seems to me to be the much better choice - to set the Lord always before me so that I will know the path of life and be filled with the joy of His presence. To have my heart be glad and my tongue rejoice. How can I not share that joy, that happiness with everyone I meet?