Denmark is so happy

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released results from their annual happiness survey this week. Denmark won, again. Frequent readers of the blog know that geography and math are not my strengths. But am I the only one that has no idea where Denmark is in relation to the rest of Europe? Maybe the Danes stay happy because no one can find them to drag them down into a miry bog of cynicism and self-loathing.

The US ranks 18th, which isn't that bad until you look at the countries in front of us:

• Japan - recent earthquake and nuclear meltdown
• China - no freedom of speech, communism
• Iceland - cold all the time

One of the questions the researchers asked was "How are you feeling today?" Lately, I've been struggling with the possibility that being happy and being faithful are not complementary states of being. The word "happy" appears exactly 1 time in my New Testament translation. Jesus never said it. And yet, happiness seems to be the thing we long for, or even the thing we think we deserve.

Someone should commission a World Faithfulness Survey and compare the results.  A good question might be "How are you faithful today?" What's your response?