Are Christians Performing Happiness Instead of Living It?

Georgia Author Brian L. Jackson Addresses the "Happy on Credit" Culture in Debut Christian Living Book

ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, June 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Many Christians can quote Scripture, serve in their church, and still go home on Sunday feeling empty. Brian L. Jackson, a Georgia-based church leader and author, says there is a name for that pattern and a way through it. His debut book, "Think Like Jesus, Act Like a Christian," released June 24 and available on Amazon, calls it being "happy on credit" and offers a Scripture-grounded path toward the genuine joy that faith is meant to produce.

Jackson describes "happy on credit" as projecting confidence in God outwardly while quietly carrying doubt, depression or unresolved pain on the inside. He says the pattern is common among believers who have learned the language of faith but have not yet experienced its reality.

“I’ve been the guy saying ‘God is good all the time’ while my whole world was coming apart,” Jackson says. “That’s what happy on credit looks like. You’re spending joy you don’t actually have yet, and at some point the bill comes due. Mine did. This book is about what I found on the other side of that, and it starts with learning to actually think like Jesus.”

Jackson writes from personal experience. A preacher’s kid who came to faith early and went on to serve in church leadership, he is candid about seasons of his own life marked by people-pleasing, depression and the painful distance between what he knew to be true and how he was actually living. He credits the slow process of genuine transformation with giving him something real to say.

The book is organized around four areas where Jackson says the gap between performance and authentic faith tends to run deepest: happiness, forgiveness, truth and relationships. It is written for men and women who love God but have been quietly wondering why their faith has not produced the peace they were promised.

Jackson’s conviction, laid out across each chapter, is that the gap is not a faith problem. It is a thinking problem, and one the Bible already has an answer for.

About the Book
"Think Like Jesus, Act Like a Christian" by Brian L. Jackson is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon. ISBN: 978-1-966596-34-9 (paperback), 978-1-966596-35-6 (ebook).

About the Author
Brian L. Jackson has spent his life in service to his local church, his community and the senior living industry in Georgia. His life verse is Proverbs 10:22. "Think Like Jesus, Act Like a Christian" is his debut book.

Brian L. Jackson
BLJACKSON31@gmail.com
Brian L. Jackson

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