Joy for Life’s Journey – March 19, 2000
Despite its tasks and trials, each day of life offers us opportunities to find joy in our daily activities. In a world filled with cares and sorrow, our Heavenly Father’s love is constantly displayed in the joy He provides along life’s journey.
While joy is part of God’s plan for His children, we all experience seasons of suffering, loss, and pain. Trying to live a joyful life “does not mean we won’t have afflictions, but they will be put in a perspective that permits us to deal with them.”1
Such joyful moments provide relief from despair, new strength when we’re weary, and respite in tedious times. After dark nights of discouragement, sorrow, or grief, we’ll find that God’s promise is sure: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”2
Even during our most severe suffering, God will send moments of joy and relief; however, we must attune our attitudes to perceive them. Confined in a World War II prison camp after she was caught hiding Dutch Jews from the Nazis, Corrie ten Boom records the delight she found in the ants who burrowed into her solitary confinement cell, and her gratitude for the biting fleas because they kept the guards from finding her hidden copy of the Bible.3
Joy cannot be purchased with money or assured by position. Instead, joy flows freely into grateful hearts that rejoice in God’s goodness. When we truly see and feel and listen, we find sources of joy all around us: a family member’s love, a sunset’s beauty, a friend’s loyalty, a child’s laughter. Joy comes to us from many sources, yet each, ultimately, is a blessing from God.
Life’s journey has been compared to traveling by steam train. There’ll always be stops and starts, jolts and jarring, smoke and ashes from the locomotive, but in spite of them, there’ll also be occasions of thrilling speed and moments when incredible vistas spread themselves before our view. The secret of having joy is recognizing that joyful living is a style of travel, not only a destination.
In guiding us home, God offers us joy for the journey, and the promise that we’ll rejoice with Him forevermore at the journey’s end.
Program #3683
1The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book, ed. Cory H. Maxwell (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997), 184.
2Psalms 30:5.
3Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place (Grand Rapids: Chosen Book, 1999), 141,190.