God is good, God does good, and oh, how He wants you to be happy. In her new book, The Sacrament of Happy: What a Smiling God Brings to a Wounded World , Lisa Harper unveils that happiness is a gift from God that we can unashamedly enjoy. Happiness tends to be cast as a fluffy emotion without substance rather than a biblical concept, but this is not theologically accurate. Wearing the twin hats of both seminarian and belly-laughing adoptive mom, Lisa Harper dismantles the old-school idea that joy, not happiness, is the truly spiritual emotion, and asserts that Christ-followers are actually called to happiness. We are called to happiness, and this happiness is not impacted by personal or global tumult. In fact, happiness is a sacrament. The general definition of sacrament is a visible sign of inward grace. In communities of faith, it most often refers to holy communion or the Eucharist. In the broadest understanding, however, a sacrament is a gift bestowed by God, and in that case, ‘happiness’ is absolutely a sacrament-a visible, sometimes even audible, sign of inward grace! Lisa shares heart-wrenching difficult stories from her past, as well as some side-splitting hilarity along the way. Throughout the book, we see that happiness and sadness can coexist and ebb and flow like the tides. Christine Caine, Founder of A21 & Propel Women, had this to say about Lisa’s new book:
The Sacrament of Happy -like all of Lisa’s messages and books-enriches my understanding of God and His Word-and His great love for us. As always, she unfolds biblical truth so clearly and calls me to action. Every. Single. Time.