How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado

Everyone wants to be happy. Happy people are healthier and are more effective leaders. (5) But only about a third of Americans say they are happy. (5)

What makes a person happy? It's not money. It's giving, Lucado says. It's helping others. He explores the ten “one another” statements in the New Testament as practical ways to happiness.

• Encourage one another
• Bear with one another
• Regard one another as more important
• Greet one another
• Pray for one another
• Serve one another
• Accept one another
• Admonish one another
• Forgive one another
• Love one another

Lucado is a master communicator. He can tell a story and he tells lots of them in this book. Some are from the Bible while others are from his own experiences. His humor adds interest too. His writing is not deep and the short chapters make for good daily reading.

Lucado gives readers a challenge. “Set out to alter the joy level of a hundred people over the next forty days.” (166) Lucado notes he did it, finding it harder than he thought but more rewarding than he could have imagined.

There is a good section at the back of the book containing Questions for Reflection. The book could be used as a devotion or a small group study.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Max Lucado has been in ministry since 1978, serving churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as Teaching Minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is the author of many books with more than 140 million books in print.

Thomas Nelson, 208 pages.