The Secret to Joy of Heart and Mind

“To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.”

— Pearl S. Buck

Many people know that a fundamental happiness exists in a state of humility. Somehow we are blessed with spiritual blessings when we think of others more and ourselves less. This is not thinking of ourselves as less than others, but just thinking less of our problems, uncertainties, and conflicts, or our gains and pleasures. Accepting our problems as they are, not coveting our pleasures, we move on into a bigger world; a world full of others. This is a world we can contribute to in loving ways. This is a world that God seeks to use us in.

The secret to joy of heart and mind is a genius of simplicity.

When we grasp that service with a purpose has gaping measures of awe about it, that we are serving the living God, we feel privileged to be called and to enact such a creative endeavour.

When God Makes Life Beautiful

We all tend to notice a beautiful sunny day, the majesty of a dark and stormy evening, a sunrise or sunset, but we may not often notice the beauty that can be experienced through serving others.

This is a very personal gift that God gives us. It is a joy with such integrity we have to pinch ourselves to believe it. “What, by giving to others, in intentional ways, because I want to, you (God) make me feel never more wonderful?”

This is a secret that God keeps from all those too selfish to serve.

But for those who are prepared to throw their hats into the ring of life, and give not only their time and resources and energy, but give their very selves in whatever way they are called in the moment, these are blessed with a joy surpassing understanding.

Notwithstanding the beauty in nature, and other visible beauties, this beauty of joy is a breathtaking reality. It truly is one of the seven wonders of life.

When God makes things beautiful, because without him we cannot, we cannot help but appreciate that life, at once, has made more infinite sense in one moment than ever before. Only one experience like this is enough to convert us to the power of God for an abundant life we always dreams of.

But we must continue to give of ourselves, or we slink back into the old joyless way.

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It is more blessed to give than receive. Those who bless by their service of a wholehearted and free-minded joy find the secret to life. God gives never more than to the willing servant wanting to bless others.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.