Both the Men’s and Women’s Bible Studies in the Book of Daniel finish soon. I am still struck by faithful service Daniel gave: “And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king’s business…” (see chapter 8, verse 27a)

Daniel’s faithfulness has a complement in the New Testament in Paul’s actions in Acts: go to new town, proclaim the gospel in the temple, be arrested or beaten, move on to the next town, repeat.

As the apostles moved closer and closer toward their own martyrdoms, the gospel of God spread. They did not or would not give up their message or their calling.

Shift forward 2,000 years.

A friend I know in publishing lives in Lebanon. She shared via a communications app when the bombs were falling. She asked a group of us to pray. I’m often wondering/praying for my friends in Ukraine, too, wherever they are, their witness in the midst of unbridled madness and unpredictable interruptions in utilities, little or no heat in winter, all the while growing accustomed to the sound of drone warfare. And I think of my friends in Nigeria. Even though these people follow Jesus in places where it doesn’t make any earthly sense to do so, they persevere, and as I write this, they are safe from harm

But I’ve been thinking about these friends as I get news that the World Happiness Report for 2026 is out. At first, I thought the results were scrambled with winter Olympic events because of the dominance of Scandinavian and northern European countries. Finland, Iceland and Denmark take the gold, silver and bronze respectively. But then Costa Rica popped up at number four and war-torn Israel came in at number eight. So, it was a mix-up!

What’s going on?

The United States is number 23! The United Kingdom ranks a little lower at 29. Something is not right. USA should be ranking higher and if you don’t agree, I’m going to lose my temper and have a debate with you about it. We are happiest, or at least happier than number 23, aren’t we?

Not only that, though, these countries rank higher year after year. This is a trend. Their analysis this year says that social media is a contributing factor in the decline of happiness. That might explain our low ranking, but what other kind of stuff are they asking people? What do they mean by happiness?

An FAQ for that claim, “Many people think of happiness as a positive emotional state, associated with smiling, laughing, and feeling good (e.g., I feel happy today). However, people often use happiness to describe their assessments and judgements too (e.g., I’m happy with my life overall). We care about both of these aspects.”

In Forbes: “Happiness is taken seriously in Finland, where well-being is a core focus of policy and everyday life,” says Dr. Frank Martela said in a statement. That’s nice but I’ve always thought the pursuit of happiness was kind of baked into our national character. Are we just not pursuing hard enough?

With more online research, suddenly I’m reading about people finding their own bliss. What does that even mean?

Joking aside, I would guess that we would land higher than we did.

And how does happiness relate to us as the people of God?

I remember when I first started reading the Bible, my KJV or Living Bible used “happy” where my Bible now has “blessed.” How happy are the people of the beatitudes, happy are the people whose God is the Lord, happy...

There is a kind of happiness that we know. It’s not defined or measured by borders of nations or the sense that our country is going to care for us no matter what. Consider the happiness of repentant prayer, even if the repentance is in the belly of a whale or a country of exile. “I repent” is still a prayer God loves to hear. Stop. Turn around. Follow Jesus.

What about the happiness of being able to tell another person (one who doesn’t know the best story ever) the story of Jesus coming, loving, dying, rising, ascending; the joy of sin being washed away. Think of Paul on Mars Hill or Philip on the road with the Ethiopian Eunuch.

True happiness comes with God and with others—not in finding our own bliss, not in finding ourselves, but in giving ourselves away. Happy-are-the-people-whose-God-is-the-Lord happy. This different happiness is good news bubbling like refreshing water on a hot day. It has no geographic boundaries. It doesn’t fit into demographic categories of well-being, but it does fit in jars of clay.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7