Many things in life make me happy.
People, family, being alone, puppies, books, beautiful scenery, good food, music, writing, and clean windows are among the things I enjoy. Yet these same items can also cause pain, anger, or disappointment. People disappoint, family members make choices I don’t appreciate or, worse yet, they die. Too much alone time can cause loneliness, puppies pee and poop on the floor, and books sometimes have endings I would change. Beautiful scenery can lead to dangerous places, good food spoils, too much food makes me overweight, music I love is displaced now by genres of music I don’t enjoy or understand, my writing could be better, and clean windows only get dirty again.
All of the above are temporary and only make me happy for a short time. Joy is deeper. Joy is holding a newborn baby, knowing the person I love who died and left me is in a better place and will suffer no more, and finding the beauty of God’s creation in an everyday sunrise or sunset. It’s hearing God’s music in the breeze or the flutter of wings, and finding God’s presence in loneliness. Joy comes when someone says something I wrote spoke to them. Joy is sharing good food with people we love, and we all know clean windows are a waste of time.
The words Jesus speaks give joy, love, compassion, peace, hope, forgiveness, and thankfulness. The things we see as important in the story of His life bring joy to our lives: family, children, good friends, worship, giving, sacrificial living, kindness, and defending the right. Jesus loved people, yet His time alone to pray was vital to His accomplishments.
I don’t live with constant joy, but I could get a step closer by listening to the things Jesus has spoken and acting on them. Could you?
What can you do to find joy and take it to others?
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Susan Paulus is the mother of three adult daughters and grandmother to nine and has been married for over 60 years. She loves her part-time job at her small church in Northwest Ohio, is challenged by the two writers' groups she attends, and loves remembering she was led to the Lord in the mid 1970's by a woman who prayed, "Lord, use me."