Finding a Serendipitous Joy in Everything

Of course it is possible,

To find joy in everything,

But it must abide in truth,

Where the soul it can sing.

Wherever our souls find themselves validated in truth there is the capacity for joy, because joy is about the soul’s integrity with itself.

Even in grief there may be joy to know God is beyond it all – that God will reconcile justice in the overall scheme of things.

I like to differentiate real problems from first-world problems, whereby health issues are separated from inconveniences, etc. I complain, at least inwardly, about many things, some of which are first-world problems and some of which are real problems. But a case in point regarding joy in all circumstances is the idea of remaining upbeat even in the midst of a debilitating back injury. Whilst not the same as a terminal illness, having a disabling injury for several weeks is enough to tempt anyone to become depressed, but there is so much to see and still so much reason for joy.

There is blessing to see. There is the joy in others’ lives to see. There is the development of people growing with which to see. There is hope for a better future to see. There are remembrances of the past with which to see and be thankful for. There are the many things that we can see, that we can touch, those things we have access to, that make our lives just that little bit better. All these things we can see.

Finding a serendipitous joy in everything is finding that impossible thing for another to see. Possibly sight in this way is entirely due to faith, because it cannot be seen or experienced by another. It is special, even meaningful, to us, alone.

It isn’t fabricated – this joy – because it is most truly experienced. And when we might otherwise be sad or depressed or angry or bored or lonely, joy is such a superior and preferred state of being. Who can argue with this state of truth-inspired joy (truth-inspired because we can live according to reality, absorbing the threats to our persona and our perceptions) when it is such a blessing to all comers to be around or to be influenced by that purveyor of joy?

The gospel reality is truly lived when we are able to find the joy in the sorrow and the sorrow in the joy, much like there is joy at a funeral and sorrow at a wedding. These are not universal truths, because they are truths of perception. They may be realised as personally-held truth. But they are real within. Such joys are accessible because the soul is in congruence with itself.

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Wherever our souls find themselves validated in truth there is the capacity for joy, because joy is about the soul’s integrity with itself. We cannot experience joy if there is dissonance within our soul. Joy is about soul-health; it’s beyond the roller coaster of circumstances.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.