Welcome to the Friday, March the 21st, 2025 edition of Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.

I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by our co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison.

I didn't realize that Thursday was the International Day of Happiness until it was too late to write about it in the daily article.

But surely we should seek happiness every day, not just on a day chosen arbitrarily by the United Nations.

Here's the problem. A secularized culture can seek happiness only in the happenings of our world. And a quick scan of

this morning's news shows the illusionary nature of such happiness from today's power outage

and closure of Heathrow Airport in London to the renewed conflict in Gaza to wildfire evacuations

and disruptions in Texas, Florida, and Arkansas.

The 2025 World Happiness Report was published this week.

In it, the U.S. fell to its lowest ever ranking coming in 24th among nations.

Israel, despite its ongoing war with Hamas and internal divisions,

ranked far higher than we did.

We should not be surprised.

Anxiety, loneliness, and overdose deaths are at all-time highs in the U.S.

So, seeking happiness from happenings does it seem to be a winning strategy.

The good news, though, is that there's a far better way.

It is difficult to be happy when our circumstances are difficult, but we can be blessed in every

moment of every day, as affirmed in Jeremiah 17, verse 7 and 8, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose trust is in the Lord.

He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream

and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the

year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

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