Reflections on "No Right to Happiness"

What interested me the most in this essay was Lewis's belief in Natural Law and how it influences national law. I believe that the laws we pass and observe as a nation are shallow reflections of God's Laws. All Laws, whether human or Divine, are intended to protect us. However, as citizens of a nation, we are able to observe the letter of the law only for our own self-interest. Conversely, when we observe God's laws as Christ-followers, we should be and often do, follow the spirit of the law. This means that our motivation behind not murdering someone because they've angered us is because we love them as our Neighbor and not simply because we fear the consequences of prison. (However, Christians are often motivated into obediance to God because of the consequence of Hell instead of love for others, but that is an entirely different can of worms, and I won't go into it here.)

David Korten, author of The Great Turning, addresses this issue in terms of levels of consciousness. There are five levels of development altogether, but for this post we are interested in only the third and fifth levels. The third level of consciousness is concerned with civic duty. This level is often the highest reached for adults in America. Civic consciousness is concerned with following the laws of the nation and state, fairness for all, and persues that fairness by enforcing the law. This is the model "good citizen." Conversely, the fifth level, called the Spiritual level, is concerned with justice, love for others, recognizes the big picture in terms of issues of the law and thus is willing to change it in order to promote universal justice. This level is the hardest to reach, and many people never do.

However, I think that as Christians we should be striving to attain this level of consciousness so that we are not just following national law, but Christ's laws for us. This means that we recognize that although our laws permit us to divorce our spouse for almost any reason, Christ requires us to commit to our spouse for a lifetime. Our persuit of happiness is not an option in this matter. I believe that happiness is a human creation, and as Lewis says, is influenced greatly by outside factors. Joy, on the other hand, would exist even if we did not, and therefore is of God. This to me, means that our persuit should not be fickle and slippery "happiness," but instead attainable and constant Joy, created by a reachable and constant God!