Freedom is so hard and annoying and messy why do I want you to have it if the natural way of things is one person rules and everybody else follows why not just fall into the natural way and the reason is without freedom you will never know joy you will never have the full life that God meant
you to have in the Declaration it says that God gave you certain rights among them the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we talk about happiness sometimes as if they want you to be happy like you just have a great date or you're just made a lot of money or something like that that's not the kind of happiness they were talking about that happiness comes and goes when sad things happen you'll be sad when happy things happen you'll be happy the kind of happiness that the founders were talking about is what the Greeks called eudaimonia means good spirit it really means human flourishing it's what Jesus called life in abundance that's what they wanted you to pursue they wanted you to pursue eudaimonia where does it come from well Aristotle said that it came from virtue that people did not experience eudaimonia until they had virtue and jesus said that virtue largely consists of loving God and loving your neighbor as you love yourself.