I think the third song I ever learned in church (after “Jesus Loves Me” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children) was “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” If you never clapped, stomped and shouted your way through this one as a kid during Sunday school or Vacation Bible School, here’s the general gist:

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! (clap, clap)
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! (clap, clap)
If you’re happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! (clap, clap)

The second verse replaces clapping with “stomp your feet!” and the third verse instructs to “shout amen!” The fourth time through, the kids are commanded to “do all three!” prompting a roof-raising, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, amen-shouting display of happiness that leaves the original question as to their happiness definitively answered in the affirmative. And judging by the smiles that usually accompany that final refrain, all faces were surely showing it!

Are we happy when we worship? Are we even supposed to be? The old saying, “God doesn’t want you to be happy, he wants you to be holy,” appears to wrap the happiness dilemma up with a nice tidy bow for some folks … in particular, the ones who are mad because someone’s being happy. How dare they! Don’t they know you’re supposed to leave your happy at the door? Christians are supposed to feel … joy (you know, the same thing as happy but with no external signs.)

Happiness certainly gets more complex as we get older and I’ll be the first to admit that it usually takes a little more than some hand-clapping and foot-stomping to take my eyes off the trouble we face in the world. But I have to think that Jesus might look at these little kids and remind us older disciples that we can learn something from their innocent enthusiasm.

To a certain degree, innocence makes happiness in worship easier. “Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so” is easy for a child to believe and sing with all their heart. Of course he loves me! Why wouldn’t he? Pass the cookies. Remembering Jesus’ love is significantly more difficult, however, when you’re losing a job, fighting depression, or mourning the loss of a loved one. Likewise, knowing with certainty that Jesus still loves you in the midst of sin and shame can seem altogether impossible to pull off, much less sing of it with any conviction.

James realized the wide range of emotions that worshippers bring to the table. In the book that bears his name he wrote in chapter 5, verse 13, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.” Until Jesus comes again, his people will gather together to sing and pray, and you can rest assured that some people will arrive filled with happiness, while some come burdened by trouble. His readers might have asked him, “Hey, James, what should we pray?” and I wonder if he told them to open their songbooks to Psalm 51 and get ready to sing/pray verse 12, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation …”

There’s nothing like thinking about the Lord’s gracious salvation to lift the spirits. And there’s one place in Scripture that lays it out like no other. If 1 Corinthians 13 is Paul’s “love” chapter, then Ephesians 1 is his Biblical response to Pharrell’s ultra-popular song, “Happy,” and if you want to “feel like a room without a roof,” this is your chapter.

Try reading it this Sunday before worship and I have a sneaking suspicion that you’ll be happy … and you’ll know it … and your face will surely show it!

Ephesians 1:3-14

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”