{"id":4216,"date":"2009-01-30T00:10:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T00:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html"},"modified":"2009-01-30T00:10:12","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T00:10:12","slug":"friday-is-for-friends-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html","title":{"rendered":"Friday is for Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HappinessCht.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/HappinessCht.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 20px 20px;float: right\" height=\"319\" width=\"425\" \/><\/span>Friends think about, talk about, and enjoy happiness with one another. David Naugle&#8217;s new book, <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0802828175?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0802828175\">Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0802828175\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: medium none  ! important;margin: 0px ! important\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><\/strong><\/em>, is a good book to read and a good book to discuss &#8212; and I hope you find a way to read it in a group or at least with a friend. You may have heard this, but there are lots of studies today that measure the happiest places on earth (Denmark is #1) and that the correlation of wealth and happiness is not what many think it might be. And there is a correlation of happiness and one&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com\/2008\/05\/01\/the-politics-of-happiness-part-2\/\">political\/religious views<\/a>. Having said that, let&#8217;s dip into Naugle&#8217;s 1st chp &#8212; which has so many ideas on happiness it is hard to contain.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<b>Question: If you had to pick the top three things required in order to be happy, what would they be?<\/p>\n<p><\/b>It is true that happiness is a &#8220;yuppie word&#8221; (Bob Dylan, who prefers &#8220;blessed&#8221;) far too often connected to doing what one wants &#8212; to a personal, subjective state. It is also true that the church has had its share of struggles affirming the value of happiness as a universal human trait. &#8220;Believers,&#8221; the church tends to say, &#8220;are straight-laced, sober, and sad. Some are cold; a few are frozen.&#8221; So Naugle argues in this book for a Christian definition and a Christian appropriation of the universal longing what is best called &#8220;happiness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Eden.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/120\/import\/imgs\/Eden.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;float: left\" height=\"324\" width=\"475\" \/><\/span>(<a href=\"http:\/\/images.google.com\/imgres?imgurl=http:\/\/www.desktopscenes.com\/Autumn%2520Scenes%2520from%2520Southern%2520Vermont%2520%282003%29\/The%2520Garden%2520of%2520Eden.jpg&amp;imgrefurl=http:\/\/www.desktopscenes.com\/Autumn%2520Scenes%2520from%2520Southern%2520Vermont%2520%282003%29\/slides\/The%2520Garden%2520of%2520Eden.html&amp;usg=__9uGBNIsDiIg-he0Zf05n5jqQieY=&amp;h=551&amp;w=800&amp;sz=198&amp;hl=en&amp;start=6&amp;um=1&amp;tbnid=yY_CD2fLrovDwM:&amp;tbnh=98&amp;tbnw=143&amp;prev=\/images%3Fq%3Deden%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN\">Awesome picture<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Naugle&#8217;s claim is that Christian happiness is &#8220;Edenistic&#8221; and not &#8220;hedonistic.&#8221; (Clever.) He finds six features:<\/p>\n<p>1. Spiritually: we are made for union with God as Eikons.<br \/>2. Vocationally: we are made to undertake fulfilling work as stewards of God&#8217;s creation.<br \/>3. Socially: we are made for human companionship &#8220;especially as man and woman in the context of marriage and family life&#8221; (though he is not here addressing the single life or denying it or judging it).<br \/>4. Nutritionally: we are made to partake of food and drink.<br \/>5. Sabbatically: we are made to rest and play in the blessing of the 7th day.<br \/>6. Habitationally: we are made to take pleasure in our surroundings &#8212; an Edenic vision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friends think about, talk about, and enjoy happiness with one another. David Naugle&#8217;s new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, is a good book to read and a good book to discuss &#8212; and I hope you find a way to read it in a group or at least with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Friends think about, talk about, and enjoy happiness with one another. David Naugle&#8217;s new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, is a good book to read and a good book to discuss &#8212; and I hope you find a way to read it in a group or at least with&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-30T00:10:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/HappinessCht.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Friends think about, talk about, and enjoy happiness with one another. David Naugle&#8217;s new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, is a good book to read and a good book to discuss &#8212; and I hope you find a way to read it in a group or at least with&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2009-01-30T00:10:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/HappinessCht.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html","name":"Friday is for Friends - Jesus Creed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/HappinessCht.jpg","datePublished":"2009-01-30T00:10:12+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-30T00:10:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/HappinessCht.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/HappinessCht.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/friday-is-for-friends-97.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Friday is for Friends"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith for today","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0","name":"Scot McKnight","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","caption":"Scot McKnight"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/author\/smcknight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}