Go on-line and Google “Happy Place” and you will get tons of responses, most of them very upbeat if somewhat vacuous. There is a big difference between being able to recall times and places where you were happy or had happy experiences and actually finding a place (mentally) where you can be at peace and happy.
For many people one physical place in which they find happiness is their church. But, again, it is not really the physical place so much, but rather the state of mind that one gets into that defines a happy place. Perhaps that is why being in churches work for so many.
Dr. David Livingstone, a late 19th-century Victorian era Scottish physician and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, was an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the era. He put it well when describing where he found his happy place – “There is one safe and happy place, and that is in the will of God.” When one is in church it is easier to get to accept God’s grace and peace and get into that state of mind.
I saw another quote somewhere that says – “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the moment.” – Lao Tzu
You can’t change the past and worrying about the future will not change it either, so that leaves you with making the best of the present. Putting your mind at peace and finding your happy place in the present is as easy as saying the little prayer that I’ve recommended over and over here – “Not my will but Thy will be done.” Try it and see if Livingstone wasn’t right. See if surrendering to God’s will doesn’t put you at peace and in a happy place. That can be your happy place going forward.
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