EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE HAPPY. From moms to mailmen. From artists to athletes. From monks to models. From preachers to politicians. Philosopher Blaise Pascal is unequivocally correct when he says, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception.”[1] But experience tells us that not everyone is happy, that happiness eludes us. Why is that?
In today’s socio-economic climate, there’s a disturbing trend in the increase of unhappiness, especially in the youth of America. A synopsis from The Economic Times reads: “The United States has dropped to its lowest spot ever in the World Happiness Report 2025, ranking 24th. Experts say young Americans under 30 are the most unhappy because of loneliness, money stress, and mental health struggles. The report warns this decline could shape the country’s future unless strong steps are taken to bring hope back.”[2]
Now let’s take this unhappiness to its sad conclusion—suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States.”[3] The CDC also shows that suicide rates for American youth under 30 have increased significantly over the past two decades, with alarming rises from 2007-2021 for ages 10-24 by 62%.[4]
No doubt, a culture that pumps a steady dose of materialism and moral relativism into its feeding tube of social-media, pop-psychology, politics, music, TV shows, etc., is having a hard time digesting this unhealthy trend in increased unhappiness and suicide rates. Actually, this rise of unhappiness in America was documented over half a century ago.
Psychologist and psychoanalyst, Erik Erickson correlated America’s unhappiness to an existential crisis of identity.
He writes,
The patient of today suffers most under the problem of what he should believe in and who he should—or, indeed, might—be or become; while the patient of early psychoanalysis suffered most under inhibitions [due to gender stereotypes and socially repressive expectations] which prevented him from being what and who he thought he knew he was.[5]
Mental health struggles due to not knowing what we should believe in or who we should be or become are key components in understanding the unhealthy trend in America’s misery.
NOW, ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE A TOPIC that most people don’t naturally connect to happiness, a topic that I know can bend back the twisted spine of happiness—morality. But not all types of happiness are equal. Generally speaking, there are two types of happiness: the happiness of the hedonist and the happiness of the moralist.
The hedonist seeks to pleasure himself at all cost, treating others and things as means to his end of pleasure. Consequences or results are what matter most. Virtues, such as humility, altruism, and wisdom are lost on the “happy” hedonist. Thus, fulfillment and joy typically elude him. I argue that he is not truly happy. At best, he is happy in a superficial or worldly sense.
But the happy moralist seeks, above all, to live wisely, seeing other people as inherently valuable, not as a means to his happiness. Now, that’s not to say that results are not important to him. But in a means-to-end relationship, he sees virtues as a necessary means to the end-goal (result) of happiness. To put it succinctly, the ends exemplify the means; they don’t justify the means. That means that the way we go about getting what we want and feeling fulfilled is necessarily linked to living morally.
I ARGUE THAT THIS HEDONIST VIEW OF HAPPINESS is akin to how the culture perceives happiness—as relative and subjective to the individual, after all, we pride ourselves on being a nation that focuses on individual rights, albeit, at the cost of collective human flourishing. And it’s this subjective happiness that leaves us feeling unsatisfied and ultimately feeling hopeless. Let’s not forget the findings of the World Happiness Report and those of the CDC that were mentioned earlier. We’ll never flourish if we seek first subjective happiness. But if we seek first the kingdom of God with its moral and spiritual virtues, then we will flourish.[6]
The flourishing or happiness I’m referring to is objective. It’s rooted in Judeo-Christian morality and spirituality. We can’t get around this type of happiness. It’s an inherent desire in all of us. And it’s intended for this life not just in the beatific vision. Think of Jesus’s words in John 10:10, where he talks about coming to bring a deep, satisfying abundant life, but the thief comes to take it away. This abundant life is what ancient and medieval philosophers called “the good life.” And what is the greatest good necessary for living the good life? Happiness! Remember: True happiness is not rooted in hedonism or superficial emotions.
For Judeo-Christians, we see an excellent example of this in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, where the psalmist uses the Hebrew word “shalom,” which is far more robust than just the peace keeping notion of living sans conflict. It also signifies divine favor in the form of satisfaction, wellbeing, health, wholeness, prosperity, flourishing, friendship, salvation, and, of course, happiness. Psalm 29:11 says, “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with [shalom] peace [satisfaction, wellbeing, health, wholeness, prosperity, flourishing, friendship, salvation, and happiness]” (NIV).
In the New Testament, Jesus also used the word “happiness” in his ethic of God’s kingdom—the Beatitudes. He used the Greek word “makarios,” which is best translated “happiness,” although it can be easily misunderstood as something subjective which is why most translations use the English word “blessed” in lieu of “happiness.” But, in my opinion, the GNT translates it accurately. In Matthew 5:3, Christ speaks, “‘Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!’” The virtue highlighted here is humility, more specifically—humble dependence on God. A few verses later, Jesus adds, “‘Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!’”[7] He continues, “‘Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers” (GNT).
Here, Jesus is turning the divine favor of wisdom literature on its head by describing that those who suffer religious persecution are happy. This is counter intuitive. But in a world saturated with sin and suffering, happiness not only entails living virtuously, it also entails suffering because of it, be it by humility or persecution.
Thus, the question—“How to be happy?”—has everything to do with living morally and spiritually in the kingdom of God, reflecting God’s character, heart, and will to the world. When the world witnesses this kind of fulfillment, it can’t help be attracted to Judeo-Christianity.
I close with a quote from Pascal:
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. Worthy of reverence because it really understands human nature. Attractive because it promises true good.[8]
[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensées, VII. 425. See “Morality and Doctrine,” Christian Classics Ethereal Library, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pascal/pensees.viii.html (accessed January 23, 2026).
[2] Durva More, “Young Americans are miserable—dragging US to worst world happiness ranking yet, what’s gone wrong?” The Economic Times, August 21, 2025, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/young-americans-are-miserable-dragging-us-to-worst-world-happiness-ranking-yet-whats-gone-wrong/articleshow/123458221.cms?from=mdr (accessed January 20, 2026).
[3] “Suicide Data and Stats,” CDC, March 26, 2025, https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html (accessed January 20, 2026).
[4] Sally C. Curtin and Matthew F. Garnett, “Suicide and Homicide Death Rates Among Youth and Young Adults Aged 10-24: United States, 2001-2021,” CDC, NCHS Data Brief No. 471 (June 2023), https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db471.htm (accessed January 20, 2026).
[5] Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (London: W. W. Norton & Company, [1950] 1963), 279.
[6] Cf. Matthew 6:33.
[7] Matthew 5:10, GNT.
[8] Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (New York: Penguin Books, [1966] 1995), 4 (§I. 12).