Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
So do you think it’s true that God loves us and wants us to be happy? I do. I’m convinced of it. And it’s good news for us that He does, because He more than anyone ought to know what will make us happy.
Happiness is the universal longing of the human heart. Every decision we ever make has as its goal our own happiness. It takes a lot of forms, but without exception, we all live to be happy.
Some of us, anticipating the happiness that we think will come having six pack abs, are motivated to do hundreds of crunches and run for miles. Others of us, anticipating the more immediate happiness of leisure and flavor, just sit back and open a bag of Barbeque Fritos. Different means, but the same end. We all want to be happy.
Far from rebuking this tendency, the Bible encourages it. In fact, if anything, the message of the Bible is that we love our own happiness too little, not too much. We are frequently commanded to delight, to rejoice, to be happy.
As the Christian author C.S. Lewis observed:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
The truth is we were made to be happy. God’s greatest overarching passion is that we would experience limitless joy in his unbounded greatness. Laughter, pleasure, delight and joy are ours for the asking. We are meant to be out of our minds, enraptured in joy, happily in love with a powerful, gentle, just, merciful, transcendent, intimate God who for reasons unknown is crazy about us.
Because He loves us He wants the best for us, and so He invites us into a relationship with the greatest person there is anywhere in any universe: Himself.
We invite you to look around and ponder a bit about happiness, beer, and God. There are a number of essays touching on these three topics. You might check out this essay written by a beer lover who explains the Bible’s view on alcohol. It might surprise you. Elsewhere you’ll find some thoughts on redemption- something we’re all looking for. Here’s a piece that might help you understand the ultimate sign that God really loves us. In any case browse at your own pleasure. We hope that what you might learn here will make you happy. Really, really happy.