The Problem of Happiness.

I was listening to CBC radio this afternoon, because I have a secret love for public radio. There was a call in program on happiness. People from all over Canada called to contribute to an understanding of what it means to be happy, and what gives us happiness. I only listened for a moment, but it got me thinking.
Most of us would say that we deserve to be happy, and that if we are unhappy there is something wrong with our lives. This, as I learned while listening, is in fact a recent philosophy historically speaking.

However, I began to think maybe happiness is the problem. For most people happiness involved doing things that brought them pleasure, making sure that they were being fulfilled and successful in all ways that they felt they should be. This is of course not altogether shallow. People didn't always talk about big houses and yahts, but being happy was what life was about.

However, where does the rest of the world come in?

Should we feel bad for living a comfortable lifestyle when we know (or should know) that it is most likely at the expense of the rest of the world. Often we go out and spend money because we deserve to treat ourselves once in awhile. We would never call ourselves materialistic, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves. Right? However, I'm realizing the lifestyle that most of us would call "normal" is so extravagantly above and beyond what is sustainable or responsible as human beings.
I have no answers, so if your looking for them you can stop reading.
However, if happiness comes at the expense of people's lives then I'm not sure we should be so hasty to pay that price.

God calls us to serve others. God calls us to give sacrificially. God calls us to live for him. God calls us to pick up our cross and follow him.

As a Christian I can't believe that happiness depends on pursuing everything that I believe I deserve to have. I may not always feel "happy" when making sacrifices, but I know that ultimately God rewards those who seek him, with his presence. What could be more fulfilling in life? What's more, is sacrifice even ever about being happy? Isn't is about putting aside all the things that we trick ourselves into needing, in order to remind ourselves about the only thing that we will ever need, or will ever be satisfied with?