Sacrament of Happy, Lisa Harper
Sacrament of Happy, Lisa Harper
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Sacrament of Happy
What a Smiling God Brings to a Wounded World

Author: Lisa Harper

Narrator: Lisa Harper

Unabridged: 3 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/2017


Synopsis

Imagine hearing your physician tell you that chips and queso contain more nutritional benefits than kale and quinoa. Or opening an envelope that looks like just another bill, and unfolding instead an official document declaring you the sole beneficiary of an anonymous billionaire’s estate.In her new book, The Sacrament of Happy: Surprised by the Secret of Genuine Joy, Lisa Harper unveils a similarly extravagant, unexpected surprise, declaring that happiness—just plain feeling happy—is a gift from God that you can unashamedly enjoy.Wearing the twin hats of seminarian and belly-laughing adoptive mom, Harper delivers a warm, vignette style built upon solid theological scaffolding. She observes, for example, that God’s choice of wording for the first verse of the first psalm (a word often translated as “blessed”) literally means happy—one of many biblical reasons for dismantling the old-school idea that joy, not happiness, is the truly spiritual one of the Christian family. In truth, they’re more like fraternal twins than distant cousins, meaning we as Christ-followers are not called to jettison happiness—like a no-longer-needed set of spiritual floaties—as we learn to swim in the deep waters of intimacy with God. Beyond merely a circumstances-based, up-and-down emotion, happiness comes from a deep conviction in the unmitigated goodness of our Creator-Redeemer, freeing us to feel and express genuine joy, fulfillment, and contentment, regardless of personal or global tumult.The author’s personal story includes such happiness killers as sexual abuse, the deaths of near loved ones, a heartbreaking failed adoption, followed by the arrival of an adopted daughter from Haiti who is HIV-positive. Yet she writes on themes like: “The lost sacrament of laughter”—“Does happy have a personality type?”—“Tuning out the Pharisees who try to mute your happiness in the context of spiritual maturity.” So this is obviously not a book of trite, untested clichés. It goes well beneath most people’s surface understanding of happiness, gently guiding readers closer to the heart of God . . . with naturally a few genuine laughs and grins to enjoy along the way.

About Lisa Harper

Lisa has been lauded as a compelling communicator, whose writing and speaking emphasize that accruing knowledge about God pales next to a real and intimate relationship with Jesus. Her style combines sound biblical exposition and exegesis with engaging anecdotes and comedic wit. Her vocational resume is comprised of 30+ years of church and para-church ministry leadership, including 6 years as the director of Focus on the Family's national women's ministry where she created the popular "Renewing the Heart" conferences, which were attended by almost 200,000 women, as well as a decade of touring with "Women of Faith," where she spoke to over a million women about the unconditional love of God.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lynne

I received an advance digital copy of the book from the publisher. I just finished this book and read it all in one day. Having not read anything by Lisa Harper before, I was not sure what to expect, but I honestly loved thè book. Lisa writes with humour and honesty, and it is all backed up with Scr......more

Goodreads review by Paula

I enjoy reading and reviewing the occasional book about happiness theories, as there's always a lot to get out of them. This one's sound premise attracted me. In years gone by, happiness got a bad wrap from dour Christians who thought it was based on shallow, swinging emotions, but in reality, God a......more

Goodreads review by Jessie

Ms Harper is hilarious. She is an amazing story teller. She had me laughing out loud so hard at some of her stories. I thoroughly enjoyed them. The issue I had with the book is that the stories distract from the main points. Ms Harper makes very good points but it's hard to connect everything throug......more