The Joy of Life

Oh the joy of life! I write this knowing very well, personally, that there have been moments and times in life where to mark them off as joy would seem to be a lie I’m attempting to convince myself that it is true. Not sure if you have ever been in one of those types of situations, but there is no way we can check such off the list as joy righty? We might check it off as hurtful, a struggle, unacceptably or as bad, but we reserve the thoughts of joy for moments of pure pleasure, celebrations and complete happiness. Joy, in Christian circles is often expressed as “Joy comes in the morning”, but do you know what that means? Sometimes peopler are described as joyful, does that mean they are like “happy crazy”? Joy certainly has several different images to display but my statement, “oh the joy of life” is a vastly encompassing phrase for me. Joy arriving in the morning indicates that wherever we are presently, if we allow a sunset and a sunrise things can are different. I‘ve had those 245 hour turn arounds, but most of mine moments are like a 72 hour deal, when I’m looking for the sun to come up. I find joy in life because I have learned some Biblical truths that have become foundational truths in my life. Anyone can shout in church when things are going great. A matter of fact I know a lot of “good time church shouters”! Those folks who when life is going great have the most uplifting comments to share, they have a smile on their face when your frown is about to fall from your skin. However when the road moves from 4 lane interest travel down to a one lane dirt path the positive shouting has disappeared just like that great paved highway of travel has too. The purpose in life and the purpose for living seems to have vanished in a puff of wind. It is in these moments that the joy of life will be required to put on a full frontal assault against the enemy. James, the brother of Jesus Christ writes in the Book of James, chapter 1, verse 2, “…count it all joy when you fall into temptation”. Counting trails as temptations as positive doesn’t sound very honest or realistic, but I believe it is totally both! Let’s be honest, have you ever laughed and cried at the same time? Life, some want it to be either one way or the other, but for me I’ve found is a mixture of sunshine and rain, happiness and pain. Oh the joy of life, it is an expression of thankful, for me, that I get to experience all of life’s journey experiencers. Good things and bad things. They are going to happen, we plan for the good, but the bad arrives uninvited every time. Does this mean we quit?, no. We keep pressing through, we keep attempting to get another angle of view, we push our way through or we seek to find a detour to get around the mess we’ve found ourselves in and we do it all for the joy of living life. We need to count our joys in every chance we have to count a joy. Make a joy if necessary but never lose purpose that our attitude matters when we are discussing our joy definition and our living of life experience. Are the next words to be spoken from your mouth going to be “Oh the joy of life”? They should be, others are looking for hope and it could be your words unlock their vault that is a spring of joy that will sustain them through anything. Until then