Tag Archives: joy

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Ideally, every day would be a good day. But everyone knows we don't live in a world like that. Some days just aren't good, at least they don't seem to be in the moment. They have their sadnesses or their confusions or their annoyances, and no matter how hard we seek it, relief is slow in coming.

I learned yesterday that even those days have worth. They might even have joy. Mine did. I had to look for it later, but it was there all the same.

I found it in the little things. . . ...continue reading →

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Life would be such a drab and dull thing without joy. Laughter would be stilled; humor would not exist; and we would wallow in despair so complete it would destroy us.

And yet. . . in a way life would be much simpler if we didn’t have to be joyful. It’s one thing when the sun is shining and our hearts are at rest. It’s quite another when life takes an unfair turn and we’re left gasping for breath at the injustice of it all. Joy is not the natural response to hard times. Anger is. Despair is. Sorrow is. But joy? Whyever joy?

How can God expect it of us?

And expect it of us He does. Rejoice evermore. . . in every thing give thanks. . . count it all joy. . . There’s no doubt what He wants from us as His children.

It looks fairly impossible from a human standpoint, this joying in all things. But joy is not something we stir up within ourselves or somehow create. Joy is a gift from God, and He loves to give good gifts to His children. Don’t try to concoct your own version of joy; just ask Him for His. Choose joy, and let Him remind you how much He loves you. No matter the trial, He has promised to never leave us, to walk with us through it, to give us as much strength as we need.

And that in itself is a reason to be joyful. He hasn’t left us alone to stagger beneath our pain; He’s right here with us. And while the laughter may be drowned in tears for a while, the joy can still be present. Joy in Him if in nothing else.

He is reason enough, and more. ...continue reading →

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I wonder sometimes why life is the way it is, why seemingly every moment is tinged with something that doesn’t belong. There are no moments of pure happiness nor of pure sorrow. Laughter is etched with tears, and pain is softened by joy. Why does everything in life taste so bittersweet?

Then I think of how it’d be to be purely happy. No worry, no pain, no tears. Just overwhelming happiness. And I realize that these mortal bodies and these frail minds likely couldn’t even handle that kind of joy. Nor could they bear such uninhibited anguish. Without a smile or a beam of light to soothe sorrow, we would break irrevocably.

We are so weak and fragile, not because God made a mistake when He designed us but because He wants us to have to rely on Him. There is no sorrow that can overwhelm us if we walk with our hand in the Father’s, nor will He allow unadulterated joy to destroy us. He tempers delight with despair, and vice versa, for our own good.

And that, to me, is beautiful. The ache behind the smiles reminds me that He is good, and the ray of light in every dark place tells me again how incredibly much He loves me. ...continue reading →

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Most people don’t get to live extraordinary lives, at least not the way we tend to think of extraordinary. We look at our jobs and our homes and our friends, and it is all so ordinary. There’s nothing that sets us apart from anyone else, not like those missionaries in Africa witnessing to unreached tribes or that neighbor down the street who always seems to have the best the world can offer. The divide between us and them looks insurmountable sometimes, and perhaps it is.

But the gap between ordinary and extraordinary, on the other hand. . . that’s actually very small, small enough to be bridged by one little word.

Wonder.

Yes, wonder. Remember when you were an Indian on the warpath and the white men you captured wouldn’t cooperate as real captives should? Remember all those tea parties with little princess friends and sometimes even the queen of England? Remember turning stumps to bears and embroidery frames to halos? We all knew what it was to wonder once. The world was real, and it was alive, and we played a very big part in what that world became. But the older we get, the harder it is to hold onto that sense of wonder we had as children. So often, “real” life gets in the way. We can’t just imagine anymore. We have work to do, school to attend, families to feed.

We’re too busy to wonder. It doesn’t happen naturally anymore, not like when we were young. So make wonder a choice. ...continue reading →