Recently I heard a powerful story about a beautiful vision carried by an unlikely candidate—a six-year-old little girl—Hattie May Wiatt.

As only a six-year-old would, Hattie May brought a problem to Russell H. Conwell, Grace's pastor at her church. The children's Sunday school was overcrowded.

He was delighted by her initiative and told her that one day they would have buildings big enough to allow everyone to attend without crowding. She replied, ‘I hope you will. It is so crowded I am afraid to go there alone.’ He replied, ‘When we get the money, we will construct one large enough to get all the children in.’ It was a wonderful tête-à-tête between a concerned congregant and her pastor.

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Believe it or not, I was not always a pastor. I have lived many lives—coaching, professional sports, high school English teacher, marketing and sales, and Financial Services. When I look back over the last twenty-plus years, I certainly see God's hand in my journey, and I can even see now things that He was teaching me about Him, myself and others when I was working in so many divergent fields. But no occupation taught me more about God and my heart than when I—very briefly—worked in Financial Services at Waddell and Reed.

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There is a great deal in this world that we often delight in more than we do God. I know that to be the case for myself; forgive me if I am speaking out of turn concerning you. The reality is when we delight in lesser things over God, our hearts and minds get cloudy, and we cannot even rightly discern what it is we desire.

Inversely, when God is our great delight, and we embrace the wisdom of David's words, then either God will fulfil those dreams we have, or our hearts will shift toward even greater dreams because our desires will be more God-directed rather than me-directed.

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When we face prolonged tragedy or trauma, the first thing we lose is our ability to dream. I know that is a hefty start, and I earnestly hope it is in no way triggering for any of you. It is, though, factually and anecdotally true. Prolonged tragedy or trauma robs us of our ability to dream, think that things can or will get better, or imagine the world differently or changed. If you study the psychology of survivors—dateline seems to cover something like this regularly—you will see this as a theme.

The heightened stress response, over a long period of time, causes us to push so much of our mental and emotional faculties toward enduring or surviving that the creative, forward-thinking, exploratory parts of our mind turn off almost out of necessity.

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Typical of most pastors, I have done my fair share of weddings. And typical of many weddings, 1 Corinthians 13 was read at several of them by either the bride or the groom or both, or a family member or friend. In other words, this "love poem" of the bible, or the "love chapter", has probably been read at more weddings than it has been preached in churches.

The regular use of this passage in wedding ceremonies has probably linked it so strongly in your mind with flowers, kisses, and dresses that as we read it together, you were thinking about the last time you heard it… at a wedding. Maybe not.

At one of these many weddings I have officiated, it hit me hard—these two have no idea what they are actually saying to each other in reading these words. They have no earthly idea what they are in for, especially when each realises that the words they are reading are not feelings that can be conjured but commitments of will that they must cultivate.

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In our final two installments of this blog series on happiness, we come to what is likely the most counterintuitive truth in the world, especially for self-focused westerners like you and me—we are most happy when we serve others. We are most happy when we are serving others. There is a mountain of scientific research that affirms this truth, on which we will certainly touch, but I want to first share with you my awakening to this understanding.

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