Seeking Happiness and Joy

I've heard God described as an angry, vengeful, and jealous god. I've never believed that to be true. He is a perfect being which suggests that He is perfect in love. However, I can understand why some people would come to that conclusion. There are several stories in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, which could lead one to the conclusion that this could be the case. When the children of Israel are found to be worshiping a golden calf (Exodus 32), " the Lord plagued the people ". One might think that it was because God was jealous and didn't like that His people were worshiping someone else. Upon studying Hosea 2, it became very clear that God does this so as to remind His children where the path to happiness lies. In this chapter, a wife has sought other lovers. She asserts that her daily sustenance, her riches, and the fine things of life are from her lovers. However, the husband is the one who has provided these things for her. The husband t...

I was supposed to go camping this weekend. My friends and I attended a concert at an outdoor venue on Friday and had intended to camp near a local reservoir so that we could enjoy some trout fishing come morning. We drove to the campsites near the reservoir only to find that they were all full. Of course they were; it's a holiday weekend. We ended up going home for the night. Come morning, we decided to try again. This time, we went to a lake up in a different mountain range. When we arrived, we found a camp site a few miles from the lake. We set up camp and tried fishing in the river for a bit. We started the fire and were just beginning to enjoy the evening when one of my friends needed to leave; he had only come with the intention to stay for a little while since he had made plans with others for the evening. I opted to go back into town with him even though I wanted so desperately to stay and camp. It was Saturday night, and I really wanted to be home so that I could g...