Joy

Do you ever feel like if one more thing in your life goes wrong, you will blow up?

Do you ever feel like punching somebody in the nose even though they didn't do anything, but just because you are having a bad day?

Do you ever feel like it's not just your day that is going bad, but your entire life?

Do you ever feel like everything is just spinning out of your control?

I heard something on the radio a while back. The announcer and his guest were talking about how in the Bible, it talks about shouting for joy. Now I don't know about you, but when I am in pain I normally shout with pain, not for pain. So maybe what God is trying to tell us is that we need to be searching for joy. Shouting for joy.

I think that joy is a choice. No, it's not an easy choice, but it is a choice. There will always be times in your life that it's gonna be seemingly impossible to choose joy. Times that it seems like nothing good is happening in your life at all. Times when maybe some things are going well, but there is something that makes those good things hard to see.

But even during those times, you can still choose joy. You can still find things in your life that are good. Things that will make you joyful if you focus on them. Maybe it's something as simple as a flower growing through a crack in the sidewalk. Or a stranger's smile. Or maybe it's something bigger like the fact that you have a God who loves you beyond anything you could ever imagine.

I'm not saying you have to ignore a problem, but you don't need to dwell on it. I think most of the time, we focus on the bad things and occasionally think about the good things. Instead, we need to be focused on the good things, and occasionally think about the bad things.

The moral of this story is that joy is a choice. So today, I'm challenging you to choose joy.