Joy may come before all things of
practical need. For those who intend to be happy—and who doesn’t?—there is the
need of access to joy. True happiness does not come without joy.
But, what is this thing called
Joy?
Joy is a decision to consider well
the good over the bad; to survey the vast wonders inherent to life rather than
the drudgery; to seek an understanding of the awesome perspective of our innate
privilege to be alive, not to dwell on our suffering and difficulties.
Joy is about opportunities and
challenges, not threats and contempt for life.
The Coherence of Joy In Struggle
Life is a struggle, and yet there
are many individual struggles that punctuate our lives. Without joy our
struggles prove overwhelming. With joy we can struggle well and endure every
struggle.
It tends to be the missing
ingredient, joy, in a life of struggle. But joy was always meant to coexist in
the presence of struggle, for only with joy in our struggles can we endure them
humbly, and learn to trust God in the midst of the struggle.
The more we struggle, the more
access to joy we need. This sense of divine bliss can only come via the
surrender before God of our flesh desire to want comfort of worldly means.
Instead, in striving for the presence of God we redeem joy. Knowing God is
available, knowing God is there, knowing God provides for us, and knowing God
is for us and never against us; these truths empower us to experience the
simplicity of joy.
As we possess this most vital of
character traits we come before life poised to endure it resiliently. As soon
as we have agreed to live joyfully we don’t settle for anything but. This means
we meet our struggles by searching for the joy within them. We never believe that joy is absent. We know God is
ever present. We know that with God is joy.
Because God is a loving God,
totally faithful to his Word, he has given us joy commensurate to our struggle,
so that we may endure our struggles in his name. These two, therefore, coexist
together harmoniously.
There is only one way to endure
struggle—to ‘struggle well’. We must do so joyfully.
***
Joy gives rise to faith, and both
reveal hope. Joy is a decision and a perspective. When we have joy, we have the
golden elixir for the abundant life. Joy empowers us, and is the reason, to
gather all other virtue. This is why it’s a most important possession.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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