God's plan: Take a break

Dr. Tal Ben Shahar teaches a popular class at Harvard on Happiness 101 and has had a show on PBS by the same name. I will quickly point out here that I believe that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is ultimately the only way to a truly positive life, while Sharar follows such pursuits as yoga. Honestly, the only yoga I was ever interested in was Berra, and that was way back in the '60s. That being said, I find Shahar's research on the science of happiness interesting.

Common Ground Speaker Series gave a summary of Sharar's lecture. First of all, he says that "We are experiencing a worldwide epidemic of stress." This stress often comes because we are trying to do too much. I will add that usually we are trying to do too much because we're trying to get too much.

People think of farming, particularly in the Ozarks where we live, as being an uplifting, unstressed occupation. I think it used to be that way, but as America got more money minded, things changed. Today typical farming in the Ozarks is where the husband works full-time at one job, the wife works full-time at another job, and they farm in their spare time. If you work full-time you don't really have spare time, do you? That causes stress.

Shahar says that to deal with stress we need to take breaks, specifically these kinds of breaks.

Micro breaks, during each day: For example, the temple in Jerusalem had three scheduled times of prayer each day, and David and Daniel prayed three times a day.

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Mezzo breaks, people are happier when they take a day off each week: God scheduled that in with the weekly Sabbath.

Macro breaks, taking weeks or months off each year: God worked these in with His festivals, 19 days a year, 12 common days and seven holy days, God's favorite numbers.

In the book "The Jubilee Principle," we go over in detail God's plan for your time and your life. And now behavioral researcher Shahar says – indirectly – that God's plan for your life will make you happy. As you see, God has already scheduled micro, mezzo and macro breaks for your life. Daily prayer, weekly Sabbaths and annual festivals, which are sometimes looked at as burdens, are happiness helpers.

Furthermore, Shahar makes this strong judgment.

"We also need to shift our mindset from one focused on achievement of tasks and financial affluence, to one based on 'time affluence.' More financial success – beyond what is required for food, shelter and education – does not impact our happiness. What has a greater impact is 'time.'"

He speaks of time affluence as opposed to financial affluence. You can create wealth, but you cannot create time. To be rich in time is far better than being rich in wealth.

But here I will vary from Dr. Shahar. A life that is spent only seeking happiness for self is ultimately a fruitless task. It is still self-seeking instead of other-seeking, and at the end of a short 70 years or so of this self-seeking, you will still suffer the pain, ignominy, terror and unhappiness of dying. Your self-seeking will not save you from that. Sharar says that the prime predictor of well-being is the quantity of time spent with friends and family. Finding the true meaning of life, however, is about more than friends and family.

Dr. Shahar is an Israeli. The God of Israel is the Creator. Where did Sharar's tiny little country come from? Israel came from Yahweh setting His people back in their land after 19 centuries of wandering. Why is itsy-bitsy Israel constantly the center of world attention? Because it is the center of God's attention.

In the first part of October, Jerusalem, which God calls the joy of the whole earth and the perfection of beauty, will be filled with thousands of people keeping Succoth, Jews and Christians observing the Feast of Tabernacles. Around the world, there will also be countless families and hundreds and hundreds of gathering sites where people will be keeping Succoth, camping out with God for eight days, as they participate in this modern spiritual aliyah. They will be taking their macro break, enjoying their time affluence, spending time with family, friends and God.

Dan L. White is the author of "The Jubilee Principle: God's Plan for Your Economic Freedom." The book is also available in e-book form.