Are Christians Trying to be too Happy?

I spent my growing-up years in a conservative Midwestern church during the 70’s and 80’s. If I had to pick one word to define my experience, I’d chose legalistic. 

Between the Sunday morning sermons, Sunday evening service, Wednesday night youth group, and the Christian parenting style of the moment, I was taught there was a simple formula for happiness. And if I followed that formula, my life would be good. Maybe even perfect. At the very least, nothing too bad would happen to me.

The formula itself was fairly simple, like a basic set of rules to follow. READ THE REST AT CROSSWALK.COM.