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This conclusion has been reached following an extensive survey, conducted by the New Economics Foundation and Friends of the Earth. Vanuatu comes top because its people are satisfied with their lot, live to nearly 70 and do little damage to the planet.

In contrast, the UK did not even make it into the top 100 and Zimbabwe came bottom. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Columbia, countries that have experienced recent civil upheavals, all featured in the top 10 on the grounds that they do little environmental harm and manage comparatively high levels of satisfaction with life.

According to Vanuatu’s online newspaper, Vanuatu has topped the poll for the following reasons:

“People are generally very happy here because they are very satisfied with very little. This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about community and family and goodwill to other people. It’s a place where you don’t worry too much….Most people here live day to day. The only things we fear are cyclones and occasional earthquakes…People in Vanuatu consider themselves “caretakers” on the land.”

Too bad that we can’t all live on Vanuatu…or even cultivate for ourselves in the rest of the world the same attitudes and social environment that the people of Vanuatu have found makes them so happy.

Books have been written about human happiness and how to find it. Sadly, for many people in the world today, real happiness seems an impossibility. Their lives are so difficult and uncertain that the happiness felt by the inhabitants of Vanuatu is beyond their wildest dreams. Even those more fortunate in the world often fail to find happiness. As the saying goes, money alone cannot buy you happiness. Some of the world’s wealthiest people have found greater happiness from giving away their fortunes to others than from keeping it themselves.

That’s because this world is largely a very unhappy place to live. And it’s not getting any better, as a result of the dramatic growth in terrorism that is damaging even the most remote corners of the world. There seems little prospect of ever making the happiness felt by the people in Vanuatu a common experience.

But that is not actually true. According to the Bible, world-wide happiness is not an impossibility...in fact it’s a certainty!! This is not a ‘pipe-dream’. It’s a promise that the creator of this world made long before his world became as terrible and unhappy as it is today.

For their survey, the New Economics Foundation and Friends of the Earth invented a ‘Happy Planet Index’. Their index used three factors to measure ‘happiness’:

• Ecological Footprint
  Based on Gross Domestic Product ( GDP), CO2 emissions, urbanization and latitude. This measures land required to sustain population at present levels of consumption, development and efficiency.
• Life satisfaction
  Derived from studies looking at how satisfied people are with their life and health and the level of control they have over their life.
• Life Expectancy
  The average number of years a person born in that country can be expected to live (based on the UN Human Development Report 2003)

The Index essentially divides the damage we do environmentally by the payback through life expectancy and satisfaction. Without perhaps realizing it, the inventors of that Index were reflecting the message of the Bible about the source of true happiness.

Ecological Footprint
Back at the start, when God created the world, he gave mankind a job to do. God had created a perfect world and it was man’s job to manage the world in a responsible way. He left mankind these simple instructions:

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth…Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat:” (Genesis 1v28-30)

Unfortunately, it was not long before these instructions were ignored and the world God had created became the cursed world it is today.

Those who see climate change and global warming as the result of bad management of the environment seem to have a point. A devastating rise in sea levels around the globe now seems inevitable and is already threatening many populations. Similarly, the rush for economic growth and ever increasing GDP has added to the damage to our environment.

What is needed to restore this world’s happiness is a return to the sort of responsible management of the environment God asked for ‘in the beginning’.

Life Satisfaction
A Bible student once wrote as follows:

“Life’s greatest victory lies not in the luxuries of fame and fortune, not in the mastery of others, but in the mastery of ourselves under the perfect, transforming motive – for Jesus’ sake.”

That student had discovered that real and lasting happiness in this life does not come from pandering to our own wishes and wants. It comes from showing obedience to the commands given to us by Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father. These are not a set of do’s and don’ts designed to prevent happiness in our lives. They are actually the complete opposite, a wise and loving ‘pattern of life’ which, if followed, is designed by a wisdom greater than ours to bring far more happiness to our lives than selfish self-indulgence.

“Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.” (Psalm 128v1-2)

That’s a promise that’s repeated numerous times in the Bible and deep happiness has been the life-long experience of those who have taken the Bible’s advice.

Life Expectancy
Life may be hard at times, but it’s a natural instinct to want to live for as long as possible. But eventually old age takes its toll on the enjoyment we get from being alive and we suffer the curse of mortality placed on mankind back near the beginning as a result of disobedience to God’s commands. God had given a very clear command not to eat from a particular tree:

“Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3v17-19)

The language of that curse may seem strange and the punishment (death) very hard, but such a simple command could have been kept. But it wasn’t and since then everyone who disobeys God’s commands (which we all do) has suffered the same fate.

But the ‘good news’ is that the curse of death won’t last for ever. That is the Gospel (which means ‘good news’) you can read about in the Bible and it was taught by Jesus Christ himself and his followers. At the heart of the Gospel is the statement:

“The wages of sin (disobedience to God’s commands) is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6v23)

When that happens, life expectancy will no longer be an issue. Eternal life will be the reward God gives to all those who have believed the Gospel and been baptized.

If you are searching for real happiness, you need not buy a ticket to Vanuatu. Just read what the Bible promises and believe it!!

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her." (Proverbs 3v13-18)

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