Will You Choose Joy?

Will you choose joy today?

In Bread for the Journey, Henri Nouwen's insightful devotional book, he discusses how joy may be ours. We can have joy in our lives, if we will reach for it.

Synonyms for joy tell you what it encompasses: delight, gladness, pleasure, mirth, rejoicing. Joy is not as ephemeral as happiness. We can be in dark places in our lives and still have joy, whereas in such places happiness deserts us. How do we do that? We choose joy. We choose how we see the events of life and how we respond to them. When life presents us with difficulties we can look at them in one of two ways: either as something from which we will be improved or made stronger in some way or as something that will destroy us. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity states that throughout our lives God polishes us in many ways (with life's difficulties great and small) so that we might reflect God's love more perfectly. This is a joyful perspective worth choosing. It won't make us happier about going through the trials, but it will put them in perspective.

Now,  you're saying, but what about when people do horrible things to us (Paul called us "children of wrath" when we're at our worst and he was not wrong). When people have treated us horribly, we should see this as God's refining fire, but as humanity's deviation from God's will for us all. In these awful cases, however, how we respond will make a difference. We can either withdraw into ourselves and be devoured or we can reach out to the community God places around us all and seek help, both personal and professional, that we may be made whole again. The reaching out will take us down the path toward joy.

There is something we can do beyond making this critical choice that will bring us joy. God made us for community with others. Show compassion to others daily. Reach out to others in love and concern. Take the time away from the daily work to help others on their journey in this world. In working with others, in stopping to help them along the way, we will find joy (even when it means sitting down with them and crying with them in the bleak place they are in). Rarely will we discover how much we may have made a difference in people's lives, but it is surprising how much joy there is to be had from doing so.

Choose to live in joy today. The creator of the universe loves us and made us for joy. Take this great gift given freely and embrace it. Live joyfully and in doing so you will live well (not without troubles, there are no biblical promises that life will be easy, in fact the Bible tells us otherwise quite explicitly). You will live joyfully and spread that joy to others.

This is good news!