We live in a society obsessed with being happy. There was a time when people guided their lives by cultural norms of what is right or wrong, not today, we measure by happiness

How many times have you heard someone say: “Well if it makes them happy.” We are urged to find jobs that make us happy. We get married to be happy ever after. We spend large amounts of our family budgets on entertainment because it makes us happy. We even spend more money on needed things like cars and houses. So that we can not only get what we need but have toys that make us happy.

As a result of all this happiness we have a world economic crisis because countries have been borrowing more than their populations earn. A 50 percent divorce rate. An astounding number of single parent homes. Record home foreclosure rates. And a tanking job market leaving thousands without any hope at all. Well I hope we are all happy now.

Not long ago a study was made to find out why some people are almost always happy and some other people are not. What they found may surprise you. The study found that although both groups experienced pretty much the same events in their life over the long run, the happy group had hope that their difficulties would lead to something better.

Hope is the difference between being happy and unhappy

In this morning's scripture lesson John 16:7-15 and Romans 5:1-5 both Jesus and Paul speak of the role of the Holy Spirit in giving hope. Jesus talks to his disciples at the Last Supper in the future tense about what the Spirit will do for them, while Paul speaks in the past and present tense about his experience with the Holy Spirit.

One of the most feared teachings in the Bible is Jesus' warning that the only unforgivable sin is to sin against the Holy Spirit. We fear that teaching, I think, because nobody really knows what it means. Jesus didn't really elaborate on the subject.

I've had people ask me what that scripture means. Either because they believed they had already broken it, or because they wanted to use it as a weapon against someone. From the way Jesus and Paul speak of the Spirit in these two scriptures I'm going to suggest the Lord was talking about a lack of hope.

As both these scriptures attest real hope comes only from God. Hope that the Holy Spirit brings in eternal hope. It can be ignored but it's always there. The other kinds of hope are all temporary.

I know that sometimes the Holy Spirit seems to be on vacation or asleep. There have been numerous times in my own life where no amount of praying, or anything else, could make me feel hopeful. This world of ours can seem a pretty hopeless place. When I feel that way I force myself to remember all the times I have felt so hopeless and frustrated and scared. Then I remember how after each of those times the Holy Spirit arrived like the bugle blowing cavalry in a 1950's Western. And though my hope is gone for awhile, my faith gives me the wisdom to hold on a bit longer, and every

time so far that faith has been rewarded by returning hope. And even though I can't feel hopeful all the time, my hope remains, that hope will return.

And you know its part of our job as agents for the Holy Spirit to keep an eye out for our brothers and sisters who are walking through the valley of hopelessness. Because its so easy for an individual to get confused about things. We are emotional creatures who depend a lot on our feelings for guidance. But any counselor will tell you feelings lie. Just because you feel something is that way doesn't mean that it's true. Many times we need others to help us see the landscape of our lives more clearly.

The Kingdom of God, which includes the church, is not a hopeless place. There may be people feeling hopeless in the Kingdom from time to time. But if most of us aren't walking in God's hope through the Holy Spirit somethings not right. For as Paul makes clear our hope is not from how things are going in our everyday lives, but the Spirit of God which transcends everything else.

A few years ago I suffered from a thyroid problem. I was as physically and emotionally low as I every have been. And I have been pretty low before. The thyroid attack wiped out any hope that I had of starting a cell church. I was going to lose my new home. And would have to move back to California, leaving my son, my daughters family – including two preschool grandboys – behind. That day I woke up in the morning and just wanted to die. Really. And I remember asking God what had I to live for anyway.

And then the Spirit told me, because God loved me. Immediately my emotions rose. I thought if the Creator and sustain-er of all loves me, that is something to live for. The hope of experiencing God's presence in my life didn't make everything OK for me. But that hope did give a reason to keep living. Because I believe that no matter how bad things get in my life my God given faith will make things right in the end.

And that brothers and sisters is the real power of Christianity that only Jesus has given the world through his death and resurrection. We know in God there is no end of possible new beginnings, but even more importantly, as Jesus promised, through the Holy Spirit we have the understanding which gives us hope, because everything is going to be alright for those who believe.

by Monty Keeling