Title: Happiness Is
Author: Dennis E. Coates
Publisher: Toplink Publishing
ISBN: 978-1948779524
Genre: Religion & Spirituality
Pages: 139
Reviewed by: Allison Walker
Pacific Book Review
When asked what we want to be in life, people have a tendency to ask for physical things. We want to be a CEO, or the parent of a child, or to have a large house on a beautiful beach. But at the core of all these physical desires is something much simpler: We want to be happy. In the words of author Dennis E. Coates, “[The search for] happiness drives people. Happy is what we are meant to be.”
This is exactly how Coates begins his novel, Happiness Is. How do we create happiness? How do we destroy it? And what does God have to do with it? Everything, Coates answers. God tells us how to achieve happiness, if only we take the time to read His words. According to Coates, we are all made for happiness, and the only way to truly realize our potential is through God. We may get lost in being the CEO, or painting the baby’s room, or buying the big house, but the happiness God has for us is the same happiness we may have in Him.
In this way, Happiness Is is a mirroring of the mundane and the divine. After explaining his purpose and reasoning, Coates presents several modern examples which are filled with the corporate business failures and complicated intimate relationships which plague and overwhelm our busy lives. Coates then explains how to receive God’s grace and find the happiness tucked away in your own heart. The stories are a modernized rehashing of the trials of Job and God’s many tests to prove his righteousness. In the end, like Job, many of Coates’ characters discover their faith and find happiness. Those who don’t, suffer sometimes fatal results.
The examples have simple storylines, just enough details to draw parallels in your own life, but not enough to particularly like or dislike the characters. The stories could be anyone’s friend of a friend. The entire book has a simplicity that is sometimes too obvious and at other times pleasing. It reads a little like going to Sunday school, there’s enough scripture to feel like you’re learning something, but also a friendly voice offering you the condensed-notes version.
Don’t read Happiness Is if you want to be impressed by the depth of the author’s grave musings; there’s theology for that. Read Happiness Is if you want to rediscover the ways God’s grace can touch your modern life. This is a book about happiness achieved through love and peace, and these achieved through accepting God. For those readers who want to be inspired to rediscover God in their lives, Happiness Is is a quick and easy read.
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