A Life of Service.

Hello good friends. It is good to stay in touch with you once again. Can you and I truly find sustained happiness in this world? Simply put, what are the keys to a true continuous happiness? There are many keys to unlocking true happiness in this life. Some happiness are short lived and materialistic, like the excitement we experience when we purchase a new car, a new bicycle, a new dress or a new pair of shoes or sneakers. Although the materialistic objects gives us an instant happiness for a while, soon the happiness fades away and can be compared to how we feel like at the end of every good laughter- we come back to square one. On the other hand, one of the ways to live and enjoy a sustained life filled with happiness is for us to be of service to others. Donating our time to a good cause will give us true happiness.

Throughout our lives, there are many activities that can give us burst of instant happiness. For example, the day I was reunited with my parents in the United States brought me happiness, getting accepted into medical school brought me instant happiness for a while, the day I married my beautiful wife brought me an extreme happiness and I am still crazy in love with my wife to this day, witnessing the birth of my first child into this world brought me an intense powerful flow of happiness, and meeting all my family members on Thanksgiving Day makes me very extremely happy. When I try to recall through memory lane, some of the happiest days of my life are filled of memories of immediate events that suddenly takes my breath away, and although they are quite good memories, afterwards my mind returned to the constant mundane state of our every day life, which as you know, is very unpredictable.

So how does one obtain sustained happiness? Sustained happiness can be achieved in two ways. One is to spend some quiet time every day with God through reading the Bible. It is through reading the Bible that we can understand the will for our lives and our purpose. The second part is to donate our time for a good cause. As a young boy growing up, I discovered one day that God was and is the only personal friend who always came through for me when I was in my loneliest and most difficult times of my life. The more I understood about Him and His will for my life, the more I was filled with the sustained amount of happiness that was not based on the events or the circumstances of life.

Interestingly, I once volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club in my city, and although the work was somewhat demanding because of my work schedule as a physician, I was filled with happiness in seeing the joy and excitement of the children during the time I spent with them. Moreover, it felt good to know that the time I spent with them was creating a beautiful memory and planting the seeds and dreams of the next generations of leaders. In the spirit of volunteering, donating goods to those in need are also activities that have brought extreme happiness to my family and I. When I was in college in Buffalo, New York, one picture that hung in the restroom of my church read “What we are is God’s gift to us and what we become is our gift to God.” It is up to you and I to bring positive changes to the lives of the people that we encounter everyday.

In conclusion, I encourage you to spent some time with your maker daily in prayers and in the Bible for true direction and purpose for your life. Also volunteer your time to a good charity organization around you and I guarantee you will be filled with sustained happiness.

From Kofi Amo-Mensah, Medical Doctor.