REFLECTIONS

It’s Called Joy

“Another day, another dollar.” It’s a common phrase to describe the daily toils of life on earth and the rewards we receive from them. The phrase may be an expression of satisfaction for a job well done or a wage well earned; or maybe it expresses discontent with progress toward something greater to achieve. But however the expression may be used, most of us work to gain more than we have so we can take greater pleasure in our time away from it.

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world…” Jesus said. But most of us are not out to conquer the world. Our desires are more modest. We only seek more than we already have. So our lives follow a path to add more to whatever we have with little thought to its endlessness or even the true reason that we feel that what we have is not enough.

There will always be something to add to what is there and there is no true luxury until the missing is possessed. But luxury is fleeting. Luxury is no longer luxury when it becomes ordinary to the person possessing it.

So life can become the endless pursuit of adding possessions; and it leads to nowhere. Solomon found that to be true and he felt compelled to share the futility of it.

“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind,” Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes. But when meaning is attached to our pursuits there can be a gratifying reward at the end. It’s called joy.

Joy is a gift from God. He blesses us with joy not from what we possess but from what we give. Is there anything more gratifying than a smile of a small child received in return for a smile received from you? Is there anything more gratifying than to extend a helping hand to someone in need and watch their grateful eyes say thank you? Is there any greater reward than to give your heart to the one you love and find their heart given to you in return?

Joy is a gift from God in this earthly life. Sometimes possessions become a barrier to it, but worldly possessions are never a condition for it.

Joy comes to us bundled in a special package; and the package is God’s love.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +www.reflectingthesavior.org

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