Finding Your Amazing Grace
What If Happiness Isn’t the Goal?
Arthur C. Brooks reminds us that happiness is not the ultimate destination, nor is unhappiness the enemy. Our culture insists that we should organise life around feeling good — choosing the job, relationship, and lifestyle that promise comfort and success. Yet experience teaches that life rarely works that way. Even when we arrange everything perfectly, happiness remains elusive.
Brooks invites us instead to manage our emotions rather than be ruled by them. Humans have the unique gift of metacognition — the ability to stand outside our feelings and ask, “Why am I experiencing this? What is it telling me? How do I want to respond?” Romans 12:2 calls this transformation “the renewing of your mind.” It’s about learning to think differently, to question the stories we tell ourselves, and to allow God to reshape how we see.
He then moves from managing emotions to building what matters: imperfect families, authentic friendships, meaningful work, and a sense of transcendence — our “Amazing Grace.” These are good principles, but Christianity takes us further. Jesus doesn’t offer a better happiness strategy; He offers a new way of seeing reality. God’s path may not make us immediately happier — it may be harder, riskier, and less comfortable — but it leads to truth and freedom. Faith means walking through life with eyes wide open, trusting before we understand.
The Paradox of Faith
We often pray, “God, show me what I should do,” but sometimes we really mean, “Show me which option will make my life easiest.” We want clarity that reduces anxiety and guarantees success. Yet following Christ isn’t about comfort — it’s about surrender. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily.” (Luke 9:23–24)
The paradoxes of faith are profound:
- You find your life by losing it.
- You become free by surrendering.
- You receive by giving.
- You become great by serving.
- You discover joy when joy itself is not the goal.
The Christian life defies worldly logic. The disciples left behind security and certainty to follow Jesus. We want to understand before we trust, but God often asks us to trust before we understand. His path is not the path to an easy life — it’s the path to a transformed one.
In my own story, I learned this truth firsthand. After university, I prayed under the stars at Riverbend, asking God to tell me what to do. Instead, He asked, “What would you like Me to do for you?” That question opened a dialogue. I realised I wanted to use my life to minister to people, not to computers. Within weeks, I was teaching science at Circular Head Christian School — a calling that became worship in action. God’s direction rarely follows our logic, but it always leads to purpose.
Seeing Reality as God Sees it
There is a wonderful and rather confronting picture of this in C.S. Lewis’ final book in the Narnia series, ‘The Last Battle’.
Near the end of the story, King Tirian frees a group of dwarfs. You would expect them to celebrate as they are liberated, but instead, they are suspicious. They look at one another with “sneering grins, not merry ones”. They have been deceived before and they are determined that nobody is ever going to fool them again.
Griffle says, “I feel I’ve heard as much about Aslan as I want for the rest of my life.” The other dwarfs chime in, “It’s all a bloomin trick”. They ask, “Where’s Aslan? Who is he? Show him to us!”
Tirian responds, “Do you think I keep him in my wallet? Who am I that I could make Aslan appear at my bidding? He’s not a tame lion”. This statement sets off the sneering dwarfs again.
Later King Trinian, Luch and the Dwarfs pass through the stable door.
And on the other side is Aslan’s country. It’s akin to having your eyes opened, and seeing the world at a different spiritual plane. Seeing the world from God’s perspective.
It is beautiful and light. There is green grass and trees, flowers and then Aslan provides a great feast. But the dwarfs sit together convinced that they are still inside a dark, dirty stable.
Lucy led the way and soon they could all see the Dwarfs. They had a very odd look. They weren’t strolling about or enjoying themselves, nor were they lying down and having a rest. They were sitting very close together in a little circle facing one another. They never looked round or took any notice of the humans till Lucy and Tirian were almost near enough to touch them. Then the Dwarfs all cocked their heads as if they couldn’t see any one but were listening hard and trying to guess by the sound what was happening.
“Look out!” said one of them in a surly voice. “Mind where you’re going. Don’t walk into our faces!”
“All right!” said Eustace indignantly. “We’re not blind. We’ve got eyes in our heads.”
“They must be darn good ones if you can see in here,” said the same Dwarf whose name was Diggle.
“In where?” asked Edmund.
“Why you bone-head, in here of course,” said Diggle. “In this pitch-black, poky, smelly little hole of a stable.”
“Are you blind?” said Tirian.
“Ain’t we all blind in the dark!” said Diggle.
“But it isn’t dark, you poor stupid Dwarfs,” said Lucy. “Can’t you see? Look up! Look round! Can’t you see the sky and the trees and the flowers? Can’t you see me?”
“How in the name of all Humbug can I see what ain’t there? And how can I see you any more than you can see me in this pitch darkness?”
“But I can see you,” said Lucy. “I’ll prove I can see you. You’ve got a pipe in your mouth.”
“Anyone that knows the smell of baccy could tell that,” said Diggle.
The dwarfs are convinced they are still in the stable. All attempts by Tirian and Lucy prove fruitless. Then Aslan appears, and Lucy appeals to him. He sets a feast for them, they set about eating, but convinced it is simply stable food they fight one another for what each thinks are the least worst bits:
Very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that other Dwarfs had found something nicer than they had, and started grabbing and snatching, and went on to quarrelling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses, they all said:
“Well, at any rate we haven’t let anyone trick us. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”
Later Aslan said, “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they can not be taken out. Come, children. I have other work to do.”
They have become so determined not to be deceived that they have also become incapable of receiving truth.
We read in the next chapter of how some of these dwarfs finally recognise Aslan and love him.
Matthew 6:22-23 (MSG)
Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Paul echoes this: “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Faith expands reality beyond what reason alone can grasp. Love, beauty, meaning, hope, and grace cannot be measured, yet they are real. When we demand total control or proof, our world shrinks. True faith is not irrational — it simply acknowledges that reason is too small to contain all of reality.
John Newton’s story embodies this transformation. Once a slave trader, he was found by grace and became a minister and abolitionist. His hymn Amazing Grace captures the shift from blindness to sight, from lostness to being found. Newton didn’t discover a technique for wellbeing — he encountered a new reality that brought joy deeper than happiness. “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” His life reminds us that faith is not self‑improvement but divine rescue.
Brooks’ research affirms that spiritual experience changes the brain and opens access to wisdom beyond intellect. To grow spiritually, we must loosen our grip on control, embrace childlike openness, and rediscover wonder — especially in nature, where modern life has distanced us from creation. Serving others and seeking divine truth, not personal happiness, leads to genuine joy.
Building What Matters
Henri Nouwen writes, “Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, dare to say: these feelings are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth is that I am the beloved child of God.” Deuteronomy 33:27 reminds us, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Our identity rests not in success or comfort but in being held by God.
So build what matters — but build it around Him:
- Build your imperfect family. Love, forgive, serve, and be patient. Let grace fill the gaps.
- Build friendships that are deeply real. Seek honesty, accountability, and love that endures disagreement.
- Let your work become love made visible. Work not for achievement or identity but as an act of worship.
- Find your Amazing Grace. Or rather, allow Amazing Grace to find you. Open yourself to the possibility that reality is bigger than you thought, that God is present and calling you somewhere you would never have chosen yourself.
Faith begins with a choice — to pray, to open Scripture, to sit quietly before God, to walk and talk with Him. Start there. Say, “God, I’m here. I don’t understand everything, but I’m willing to trust You.”
Conclusion — Eyes Wide Open
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)
God’s path runs on a different plane — the paradoxical way where losing becomes finding, surrender becomes freedom, giving becomes receiving, serving becomes joy, and weakness becomes strength.
Let us live with eyes wide open to the light of His reality — not chasing happiness, but walking in grace.
Questions:
1) Of the following Paradoxes found in Jesus teaching, which challenges you the most, and why?
- You find your life by losing it.
- You become free by surrendering.
- You receive by giving.
- You become great by serving.
- You discover joy when joy itself is not the goal.
2) The dwarfs in The Last Battle were imprisoned by their own distrust. Where do you notice similar “inner prisons” in your life — places where suspicion, fear, or the need for control make it hard to see God’s reality?
3) John Newton’s story shows that faith is not self‑improvement but being found by grace. When have you experienced God “finding you” rather than you finding Him?
4) The sermon ends with the call to take a first step — prayer, Scripture, silence, walking with God. What is one small, concrete step you could choose this week to open your eyes wider to God’s reality?