God is good, God does good, and oh, how He wants you to be happy.
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In her new book, The Sacrament of Happy: What a Smiling God Brings to a Wounded World, Lisa Harper unveils that happiness is a gift from God that we can unashamedly enjoy. Happiness tends to be cast as a fluffy emotion without substance rather than a biblical concept, but this is not theologically accurate. Wearing the twin hats of both seminarian and belly-laughing adoptive mom, Lisa Harper dismantles the old-school idea that joy, not happiness, is the truly spiritual emotion, and asserts that Christ-followers are actually called to happiness.
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We are called to happiness, and this happiness is not impacted by personal or global tumult. In fact, happiness is a sacrament. The general definition of sacrament is тАЬa visible sign of inward grace.тАЭ In communities of faith, it most often refers to holy communion or the Eucharist. In the broadest understanding, however, a sacrament is a gift bestowed by God, and in that case, тАШhappinessтАЩ is absolutely a sacramentтАФa visible, sometimes even audible, sign of inward grace!
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Lisa shares heart-wrenching difficult stories from her past, as well as some side-splitting hilarity along the way. Throughout the book, we see that happiness and sadness can coexist and ebb and flow like the tides.
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Christine Caine, Founder of A21 & Propel Women, had this to say about LisaтАЩs new book: "The Sacrament of HappyтАФlike all of LisaтАЩs messages and booksтАФenriches my understanding of God and His WordтАФand His great love for us. As always, she unfolds biblical truth so clearly and calls me to action. Every. Single. Time.тАЭ