It was a few years ago when I remember hearing my husband writing a catchy tune in the music studio. I stopped what I was doing and started dancing my way to him. The beat was fun and made us both smile and want to go lay on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean. While he continued playing, I started making up random lyrics about being happy in the Lord. “You should write this down,” my husband said. So, I grabbed the legal pad of paper, and we began laughing our way through each and every phrase. Before we knew it, we had a song called, Happy and it was recorded all within a few hours.
In the process of making Happy, I never thought it would be something we would share with the world, but then we thought, why not? Sometimes in life we can take the things we do so seriously. We work, we edit, we toil, we toil some more. We get worried about the unknowns and people’s opinions. We can feel uptight about the small stuff and work to please others instead of pleasing the Lord, and finding joy in it.
I used to think happiness was a response to a situation, but as it turns out, happiness is a choice. A choice we can make every day, no matter what our circumstance looks like, we can choose happy. When we make that choice, we choose to shine a little brighter, which often reflects onto those around us. When we first wrote Happy, we shared it with a friend. She was so happy about it that she would play the song every single morning to help wake up the kids before school. Even in her extremely difficult season of grief, she would play happy, as a reminder to choose the joy even in the pain.
Happiness can come easy for some, and for others it can seem like an end of a rainbow that you just can never get to. If happiness is a hard choice, my prayer for you today is that life and all its seriousness will not overpower the fruit of joy that God has planted in each and every one of you. I pray that laughter will come freely out of your mouth, and the small things, like the pretty little song bird sitting on my deck railing this morning will make you smile. We may have never intended to share Happy with the world, but we reminded ourselves that the world needs a little more happiness and a little less seriousness. So, enjoy this Happy song and go smile and change the world.
LISTEN HERE: Happy
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” 1 Peter 1:8
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
Emily Rodewald 