How To Find Joy. Life Is Not Meant To Be Endured

As a minister, I have the privilege to officiate some 50 weddings a year. I see the joy in lovers’ eyes as I meet with them to plan their ceremony and as they pledge their love to one another.

As a hospice chaplain, I have the privilege to celebrate many funeral services. I see the families pay tribute to their loved ones and witness their sorrow and their grief.

I have learned from these experiences that the more we allow life – in all its complexity, with all its sorrows and joys – to go through us, the more we grow in depth and dimension, and the greater our capacity to withstand grief and feel profound joy.

Joy is the pure and simple delight in being alive. Joy is our elated response to feelings of happiness, experiences of pleasure, and awareness of abundance. It is also the deep satisfaction we know when we are able to serve others and be glad for their good fortune.

Invite joy into your life by staging celebrations. Host festivities to make transitions and changes in your life. Toast moments of happiness you notice as you go through your day. Dance – jump for joy – as often as possible. Life is not meant to be endured; it is to be enjoyed.

We often see joy and sorrow, happiness and sadness, smiles and tears, ecstasy and agony together. The experience of one intensifies our awareness of the other. Sorrow, for example, may be the price we pay for joy; when we have known great happiness in a relationship, we feel its loss more deeply. Or think of those times when you laugh so hard you cry.

Joy usually will be part of a set of symptoms presenting in your life. The best protocol is to be thankful for the intensity of these feelings. When you are experiencing sorrow and sadness, when the tears are flowing, remember they can be stepping stones to joy.

Rejoice in the good fortune of someone else. By doing this you overcome the very human tendency to feel that there is a limited supply of happiness and someone else is getting your share. Express your happiness in a note or with a call. Celebrate others’ joy in your prayers by praying for all the people being married right now, all the people welcoming a new child into the family right now, all the people getting a promotion right now, all the people relaxing on vacation right now, and so on.

One of the best ways to feel in your heart and soul the spiritual dimensions of joy is to listen to the finale of Beethoven’s masterful Symphony in D Minor, Opus 125. This choral piece is based on Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy, which affirms the unity of all. The exalted movement pioneers the use of the human voice into the symphonic medium. It also celebrates freedom by incorporating different musical elements – fugue, march, choral, and recitative – to create an unconventional whole. To ride wave after wave of this surging sound is to experience the exhilaration of true spiritual joy and freedom!

Passing a smiling person is my cue to practice joy. Whenever I see people dancing, I am reminded to release the joy that resides in me. Knowing how much pleasure there is in seeing another’s happiness, I vow to make serving others one of the joys of my life.

By Bob Mueller – is a Bishop of the United Catholic Church www.bobmueller.org

P.S. You may also enjoy this article also by Bob Mueller Grace-Filled Living