Find Joy

 Good morning and welcome.

 This past week, as it usually always is for us all, was a mixed bag at least insofar as the various events and happenings which came into our sphere of life and living.  On the one side, we’ve endured yet more mass shootings, including one here in Wichita.  We also continue to receive various communications from politicians and others either praising their ideology or condemning the ideas and actions of the other side.  And we are seeing, still, an economy that isn’t what it should be…inflation that is too high…families not able to pay bills and the squeeze in the family budget…painful discrimination…and the shunting aside of the poor, the infirm, and the minority into the societal dustbin.

On the other hand, we’ve celebrated yet another Independence Day with the requisite cookouts, featuring burgers, brats, potato salad, baked beans and dessert…and of course the fireworks displays, both commercial as well as the neighborhood displays.  We’ve heard many people talking about, and desiring to come together as a society in thoughtful dialog and discourse, working to resolve some of the issues facing us today.  We see kind words being spoken, and compassion being manifested in good deeds toward others.

I don’t know about you, but I often allow the negative things of life to sort of take over…putting me in a sort of constant state of sadness…a funk…and even despair at times.  And it doesn’t take much of the negative to outweigh a lot of the positive, either, at least for me.  I’m not sure why that is so, but I’m guessing it’s true for you, too.  It seems we humans like, for some unearthly reason, to wallow in the negative and fixate on those things which cause us angst and turmoil.  As is sometimes said in the workplace, “One negative can cancel out a whole bunch of atta-boys (or atta-girls if you prefer).

I thought about this today as I was doing some reading.  My mind wandered a bit as it sometimes does during these times of reading and I thought of my friend Kendra up in Wisconsin.  She’s a writer, mom, and wife.  She’s in the middle of raising a family, keeping house, writing a book, and being a wife to husband Collin.  She’s a natural introvert who, along with her husband, made a conscious decision to live in the heart of a neighborhood of great need.  We became friends through a chain of events that I’ll not repeat here, but suffice it to say that it began with my reading one of her books.

I hadn’t heard from her in awhile, and it has been awhile since I wrote her, so I messaged her briefly this morning, letting her know we were fine here, and ending the brief post with this:  “Find joy in life today, Kendra.  Whatever happens, find joy.  Blessings.”

OK, here’s the thought for today.  The Christian can experience joy in life even in the face of sad and despairing life events, and when being insulted or demeaned because of one’s faith.  In fact, in Christian scriptures we are told to find joy even in the face of trials.  James, in his short letter, puts it this way:  “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”

Jesus himself said during his sermon we call the Sermon on the Mount,  “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”

I know that I struggle with the idea that joy and happiness don’t necessarily equate.  That I can be a person of joy even when faced with the most unpleasant and unhappy life events and experiences.  But I think the idea of joy in the face of trial has something to do with our inner make-up…what happens inside of us when we experience something negative.  Yes, our unhappiness may show.  We may display one or more emotions having to do with that unhappiness.  But on the inside…deep within our souls…there should be, shall we say, a fountain of joy that continues to flow, bathing our inner being with a peace and contentment that weathers the storms coming at us on the outside.  We WILL get through this.  We WILL come out on the other side.  We WILL again see happiness.

I think that may be a good way for me, at least, to think of the ideas of joy, contentment, happiness, and the trials in life that will always come my way.  And it may be a good way for  you to think of such things as well.

So, as I told my friend Kendra, “Find joy in life today.  Whatever happens, find joy.  Blessings.”