Are poorer people happier?

Wednesday night I had the opportunity to serve with the Furniture Mission. Sioux Falls was towards the end of a brutal heat streak- highs in the 90s, lows in the upper 70s, and a lot of humidity (though I actually love the weather, but that's for a different post) so it was a hot night. Our first stop took us to an elderly woman who lived in a little house on N Cliff Ave. She had some help and it took us no time to unload her furniture, learn that she had recently been reunited with some grandchildren, and pray with her. Our next stop took us to some apartments on N Cleveland Ave where we delivering furniture to a family new to Sioux Falls from Nepal. There were six of them living in a 3rd story one bedroom apartment without the air running. It was stifling making that delivery and yet the whole family helped out and was having a good time with it. The apartment complex is home to several refugee families and kids were outside laughing, playing, and paying no attention to the sweltering conditions. After we finished this delivery, we were offered a glass of Sunny D and invited to sit and visit for a bit. So neat. It's humbling when folks who don't have a lot offer you something out of their gratitude. Very cool.

After this delivery, we set out for some of Sioux Falls' nicer neighborhoods to pick up donations. The families who donate furniture to the mission perform an invaluable service- without their donations, the family from Nepal isn't sleeping on a bed- so I'm not intending to rag on them, but the families who donated clearly had more stuff- nice homes, nicer cars, nicer toys, more food, etc- and yet they didn't seem as happy. One couple in particular was almost grumpy- maybe it was the heat, maybe it because we were running a little late- who knows, but I was struck again by the joy of those who didn't have as much stuff compared to the lack of joy from those who do have much stuff. I say again, because whether I've been to the poorer parts of Sioux Falls, Standing Rock, Los Angeles, or Mexico, I'm always struck by the fact that while I have much more than these folks, they seem to have more joy. So, who's the rich one?