Thoughts of a Sojourner

In my last writing, I shared about my rediscovering joy and what it looked like in my life. As I have thought about this rediscovery, my mind has shifted to the question of “Why a Journey of Joy?”. In this life we are faced with many obstacles. Some of those obstacles are built out of our own choices, but there are many that life just places in our life journey. In facing this life of ups and downs, we have two basic choices. We can navigate life with a negative attitude that never sees and experiences the joy that God intends for us to have in this life or we can live with and live life with an attitude of joy!. As a believer, we are gifted with the spiritual gift of joy (Galatians 5:22-23). I have discovered in these last months to truly embrace life, we must approach it with an attitude of joy. A journey of joy is cultivated and is a constant work in progress. I believe it has to be lived with intentionality and a desire to take each day as it comes and determine to find joy in it. Certainly some days are harder to find joy in, but I believe even in the hardest of circumstances the opportunity to experience joy is always there in the midst of that day. Joy does not always come easy. It does not always present itself in an obvious way. At times, joy music be searched for in order to be experienced. Joy for the day may be hidden away in some places that we will never discover if we are unwilling to come out from under past mistakes, past trauma or tragedy or simply open our eyes and look for it. Sadly, some people live as though they would prefer to live in the doldrums and negativity of life. Understand, I do not know your past, trauma or tragedy that you have experienced or even where you are now, but I do know that God did not design you in His image to live a life in the shadows of joy, but rather to burst out into the light of joy that He has gifted you with and designed you to experience and live out. God has blessed us so much with so many opportunities to experience joy if we will only set our face on that journey. Many times those opportunities must be pursued and cannot be experienced by just sitting and waiting on those things to pursue you. I have found joy in so many things in the last 5-6 months. I have made a commitment to myself to travel and experience places that I have sit and said, I’ll go there one day. I have found joy in the natural world that I was able to experience up close and personal. I have found joy in meeting so many different and interesting people in those travels. In meeting these people, I learned to find joy in learning many of their stories especially the ones whose life story differed greatly from mine. I found a refreshing joy in my hobbies – gardening, building things from my own hands, a renewed love for music and different genres of music, fishing and yes now, even raising my own flock of chickens. All these things bring joy in what each one offers. From gardening, I find joy in planting something and then watching the natural process that takes place to bring life and produce from a single seed or a small plant that is planted. From building something, to be able to take raw materials and create something that is usable and serves a purpose brings joy. When it comes to music, a song that tells a story leaves me in awe of the creative genius of a songwriter that can through his/her music take your mind into the song and feel the raw emotion of the music. From fishing, simply getting out and experiencing nature in its rawest form brings joy. Just observing the flow of the water around and over rocks or pulling that fish out of the water and in many cases just looking at that creature and imagining the joy our God got out of painting such a living portrait for us to enjoy. And yes I find joy in those dang chickens! they way they interact with other, build a sense of community, form habits and have even become attached to me brings me joy. This journey of joy has caused me to find more joy in watching my girls live their lives. It is a joyful and satisfying experience to watch them map out and navigate their own journeys and I find joy in thinking that maybe God allowed me to play some small part in helping them prepare for their life. The joy of watching my grands come into this world and watch them as they grow into the persons that God has specially designed them to be. I have also began to find joy in the dating world that I have now ventured into these last few months. I have explained to a few people like this. I was blessed to experience love in a marriage for over three decades. A love that is unequaled in any other relationship other than my relationship with my Lord. I cannot imagine living my life for the rest of the time God blesses me to have and never desire that love again. At this point I will say that I get it, some people that have experienced that kind of love are satisfied to not pursue it again and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that for even in this circumstance joy can still be experienced, but for me my prayer has become that God will allow me to experience that type love again and I believe that he will. I know and believe that it is God’s will for my life and I know that it was the desire of my bride that I experience that kind of love again in life. Through this process, I am beginning to rediscover the joy what it feels like to experience the companionship that is only found in another person. I am grateful that God is allowing me to rediscover and set out on my journey of joy and I look forward to not only the joy I am discovering each day in all these things listed in this writing, but I am also looking forward to yet untapped things that God has out there that I hopefully will discover new joys in day by day.