The whole point of starting a faith walk is to find happiness. If it was about making you miserable, hating yourself, and feeling guilty all the time, why would anybody bother? So what about those times when happiness is so elusive, you think you are never going to be happy again? What can you do about that?
It can strike at any time, that feeling of boredom, futility and purposelessness. Maybe nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Your life is pretty much the same as it always was. It’s just that, you don’t feel excited about anything anymore, you are not looking forward to anything, and yet, only the other day, it all seemed so perfect.
This sudden change in your mood, without any real prior event to explain it, can only be a movement in the spirit. Spiritual movements that affect a person’s mood are often called karma. Karma is a force described by Hindu philosophy as a measure of your moral strength.
Poor morality means bad karma, good morality means good karma. Bad karma can visit you at any time to repay you for past indiscretions. In Christianity we talk about the righteousness of God. As long as we accept Jesus as saviour we walk in the righteousness of God. This means that occasionally we may fall and sin, but as long as we repent, we can be forgiven.
However the Old Testament describes comprehensively a concept called “the curse of God”.
The curse of God and the sort of things that attract it is described mainly in Deuteronomy chapters 27 and 28. This is the Jewish equivalent of karma, where bad deeds are met with bad luck. But by the New Testament, things have changed. Jesus offers a way out to those who follow him. Luke 6.27 says “Bless those who curse you”.
And at Galatians 3.13 we read: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
So as Christians, we have a defence against Karma, or God’s curse. By claiming our righteousness in Jesus we are immune. The best thing to do the next time you feel your happiness seeping away, is meditate on the sufferings of Jesus, for when he became a curse by being crucified, he took on his shoulders the burden of our guilt. In Jesus, life has meaning, purpose and the final goal of eternal life, Karma free!