How can you expect me to have joy when my heart is breaking?

Here's the Precious Prodigal post: August 19, 2014: How can you expect me to have joy when my heart is breaking? ‪#‎abundantlife‬ ‪#‎choosejoy‬ Please "Share" using this "ShortLink" = http://bit.ly

Eccl 9:9 "Live joyfully…all the days of your life…for that is thy portion in this life"

If you’re like me, your life is a lot more like a wilderness than a garden. I applaud your courage to keep putting one foot in front of the other in that wilderness instead of giving up in despair. You haven’t quit, and that’s pretty awesome in and of itself. But don’t you want more than just surviving the bad times? I know I do, and the good news is that we really can have more than that.

In Ecclesiastes 9, Solomon tells us to live joyfully. But he goes further than that. He tells us that this life and the joy we can have in it is our “portion” under the sun. That “portion” is part of God’s plan, and it includes living joyfully. Regardless of our circumstances, our hurts, or our losses, there is joy to be found in the gift of each day. It’s our responsibility to open our eyes so we can see it.

Several years ago, I was walking with my daughter in the spring sunshine, the kind the South is famous for. Enjoying the warm breeze, the birds singing and the fresh smell of flowers, I remarked to her that spring the year before hadn’t been beautiful like that. She quietly reminded me that it had indeed been a beautiful spring, but I had been too overwhelmed to see it or enjoy it.

I remembered the heartbreak of those months from the year before as I struggled to understand the behavior and anger of my prodigal. Those memories were still vivid, but try as I might, I couldn’t remember the sunshiny days or the songs of the birds. That doesn’t mean they weren’t there…it only means they weren’t there for me. And whose fault was that?

You will probably agree that Jesus came to give us life. He certainly did that, but His plan was also “that [we] might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) It was never God’s plan for us to be victims or martyrs. Even with the heartaches we carry…maybe especially because of them…we need to make the decision to choose joy. And it is a choice.

Have you seen Sally Fields in the commercial for an osteoporosis medication? I don’t know about the benefits of the medication, but there’s a miraculous truth in what she says: “I have this one body and this one life…” So do we have only one body and one life, and we also have just this one day because tomorrow isn’t a promise.

We may not have much control over the things that happen in any given day, and we have absolutely no control over what anyone else might do. But whether we find joy in the day or not…that is strictly up to us. And choosing to live joyfully is one of the things I need to hold fast.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, choose to look for the joy in your day?